Major cigarette brand launches nicotine-free vapes, but ‘healthier’ devices may be just as bad as addictive ones

The maker of some of the world’s most popular tobacco and cigarette products has launched a nicotine-free vape after the industry faced criticism for marketing dangerous products to minors.

Reynolds American, the maker of Newport and Camel cigarettes and the now-banned Vuse e-cigarettes, has announced that it will begin selling a nicotine-free product specifically targeted at adults.

The vape, called Sensa, goes on sale in the US this week for $20 and comes in six flavors, including watermelon frost, passionfruit frost, and berry fusion.

While vapes may be less addictive due to the lack of nicotine, they can still cause health problems, such as lung disease and blood vessel damage, due to the ingredients they use and the vapor they produce.

Most e-cigarette vapors contain toxic chemicals including propylene glycol and glycerol, which break down into the carcinogenic formaldehyde when heated.

With its new product, which the company compared to non-alcoholic beer or decaffeinated coffee, Reynolds American now joins other e-cigarette manufacturers in the nicotine-free vape market, including Elf Bar, Sofi Vape and Geek Vape.

Sensa has up to 5,000 seconds of puffs and a removable battery that can be recycled. Typically, nicotine-free vapes cost between $13 and $17.

When announcing the new product, Reynolds American stated that the brand’s goal was to provide adults with a product for when they want to vape but don’t want to ingest nicotine.

The company also promised to “set the highest standards in the industry.”

The vaping industry’s marketing practices have come under scrutiny. Public health experts say vaping products, with their colorful packaging and candy-like flavors, are targeting young people.

However, Reynolds said Sensa, which is intended only for adults 21 and older, will not sell flavors that appeal to minors, will use a lock feature to prevent unintended use, will only feature models 35 and older in marketing and will advertise on age-restricted social media sites.

The company said the devices will be displayed in stores in screened-off areas with traditional vapes and cigarettes.

The brand will also carry the warning: “Zero nicotine does not mean this product is safe.”

Shay Mustafa, senior vice president of corporate communications and sustainability at Reynolds, told The Wall Street Journal: ‘We don’t want our products in the hands of young people, period.

“For us it is not grey. It is very clear: we want to be responsible.”

But there are still concerns that Sensa will appeal to some, drawn by its fruity flavours and seemingly safe ‘nicotine-free’ label. There are also concerns that some stores are still selling the product to under-21s.

These vapes don’t fall under the oversight of the FDA, which only regulates e-cigarettes that contain nicotine. The agency was recently tasked with stemming the flood of illegal devices from China that are flooding the U.S. market.

Companies seeking FDA approval must demonstrate that their products are less harmful than traditional cigarettes and that the benefit they provide in helping people quit smoking outweighs the risk the products pose to underage Americans.

Reynolds said Sensa does not contain nicotine and therefore the company will not seek FDA approval for the product.

But despite claims that the e-cigarette is nicotine-free, the e-cigarette still uses a battery to heat the liquid inside the device, creating vapor.

When the liquid is heated, it produces toxic chemicals that the user inhales, regardless of whether the product contains nicotine or not.

These chemicals can include propylene glycol, which is used to make antifreeze and paint solvents, among other things; acrolein, an herbicide used to kill weeds; nickel, tin, lead and benzene, which are found in car exhaust; formaldehyde; and diacetyl, a chemical that has been linked to the lung disease bronchiolitis, also known as “popcorn lung.”

Research has shown that these chemicals are linked to a number of health problems, including collapsed lungs, lung disease, cardiovascular disease, asthma, COPD and cancer.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers analyzed health data from 4.3 million ex-smokers and found that those who switched to vapes were twice as likely to die from lung cancer, compared with those who quit abruptly.

Another study A study published in January 2024 in the journal Microvascular Research found that nicotine-free vape liquid increases a specific protein in the lungs, causing stress on organs, inflammation, and the breakdown of blood vessels.

Lead author of the study, Dr Havovi Chichger, Associate Professor in Biomedical Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, said: ‘Nicotine-free vape liquid has been shown to have the same chemical composition as liquid with nicotine, except there is no nicotine in it.

Because the market is currently not well regulated, it is difficult to assess which chemical is most harmful to vascular function.

‘Our findings indicate that exposure to nicotine-free vape liquid has similar pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory effects on human microvascular endothelial cells, and that ARF6 is an important regulator of vaping-induced blood vessel damage.’

Sensa’s ingredients have not been made public, but Reynolds said it would list them on its website soon.

Dr Gavin Nye, a lecturer in anatomy at the University of Chester in the UK, previously told MailOnline: ‘In the past, it has always been strongly argued that vaping is not carcinogenic, unlike smoking tobacco, but now evidence finally appears to be emerging that the toxins in vapes could be linked to cancer.’

Substances from the vapor can also enter the bloodstream and damage blood vessels, increasing the risk of a range of conditions from dementia to heart disease.

And a recent study in the UK found that nicotine-free vapes can contain as much nicotine as a regular strength e-cigarette, with more than 50 brands in the country being tested.