Poster, SOT 65th Annual Meeting and ToxExpo, March 22–25, 2026, in San Diego, California.
R. Leverette, B. M. Keyser, B. S. Ganesh
RAI Services Company, Winston-Salem, NC 27106, USA
Introduction
In vitro toxicological evaluations serve as a critical tool for assessing the comparative health risks of different tobacco products. This study investigated the mutagenicity, genotoxicity, and cytotoxicity of next-generation products (NGPs), including electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), heated tobacco (HTP), and nicotine pouches (NP) and compared them to combustion cigarettes (CC). The findings show that while CC showed positive mutagenic and genotoxic responses, the tested NGPs were consistently non-mutagenic and non-genotoxic in the Ames and in vitro micronucleus assays. Furthermore, cytotoxicity testing indicated that ENDS and NP were non-cytotoxic, whereas CC showed high toxicity. These data supports the tobacco harm reduction paradigm, where CC represent the most harmful tobacco product and next generation tobacco products, including ENDS, HTP, and NP show less pronounced effects in vitro.
