Heated tobacco products (HTPs), such as IQOSTM (Philip Morris International), Ploom TECHTM (Japan Tobacco Inc.) and gloTM (British American Tobacco), were released in Japan from 2016. Since then, HTPs use has risen exponentially. However, there were few information about HTPs and the situation of HTPs users. This study investigated awareness and use of HTPs among Japanese workers, as well as examined users’ characteristics.
We distributed questionnaires twice to about 3,300 workers in an automotive manufacturing company located in Kyushu in January, 2017 and 2018 respectively. We analyzed awareness of HTPs, and the usage of HTPs and traditional cigarettes among male workers.
70% of workers had the correct understandings that "using HTPs is smoking" and "HTPs cannot be used in smoke-free areas". Of all the male workers, the percentage of traditional cigarette users decreased by 9.7% (52.1% → 42.4%). On the other hand, the percentage of HTPs users increased by 13.2% (9.1% → 22.3%). The reasons for using HTPs were interesting (47.9%), less smelly (46.0%), harmless to health (35.3%), harmless to bystanders (19.0%), reduction in number of cigarettes (12.6%), influenced by families or friends (12.3%), and quitting smoking (5.1%) in 2018. The percentage of dual users increased from 4.7% to 10.5%. About 32.6% of the dual users used traditional cigarettes outside the house and used HTPs in the house.
The number of HTPs users is still increasing and it is not confirmed that HTPs are harmless. Health personnel should warn the tobacco products users to quit both HTPs and traditional cigarettes.