The WHO Expert meeting on heated tobacco products (HTPs) was a closed meeting involving WHO staff, invited experts, the Secretariat Convention of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), a few representatives of the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation, the Chair of the WHO Tobacco Laboratory Network (TobLabNet) and representatives of laboratories independent of tobacco and related industries. The meeting discussed the HTP research proposals developed following a similar meeting in 2018, as well as four WHO commissioned background papers on HTPs resulting from Paragraph 2 of a decision of the eight session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC on novel and emerging tobacco products (Decision FCTC/COP8(22)).
As part of the meeting, participants examined the chemical and physical processes of HTPs during use, including the characterization of emissions; assessed the applicability/adaptability of existing TobLabNet SOPs for contents and emissions to HTPs; considered the suitability of existing methods to HTPs for priority toxicants, including SOPs for the measurement of contents and emissions of HTPs (nicotine, humectants, sugars and metals in HTPs); and discussed the variability of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and HTPs and the implications such variability might have for regulation.