Fire risk evaluation of heat-not-burn products and combustible cigarettes: Thermal exposure of different materials under ambient conditions.

Cigarettes have been reported to be a major cause of fire incidents and home fire deaths. Nowadays, alternative tobacco products such as heat-not-burn (HNB) are increasingly popular. In order to assess whether HNB products contribute to minimizing potential fire incidents, we evaluated the surface temperature profiles of HNB products during operation and cigarettes during smoldering or smoking, both when operated alone and when placed on different combustible materials. Experiments were conducted in Perlis, Malaysia, under ambient conditions (26.0°C ± 0. 8°C, 67% ± 4% relative humidity). The temperature of three HNB products and conventional cigarettes were recorded using a thermographic camera. Smoldering cigarettes reached a maximum temperature of 692°C and when smoked, the temperature increased by up to 22%. Puffing also led to an accelerated tobacco combustion in cigarettes. Simulated puffing had a minimal impact on the surface temperature of HNB devices, compared to that of cigarettes. The range of cigarettes temperatures observed in this study (617°C-844°C), were about 13 times higher than those for HNB products (47°C-65°C). Unlike cigarettes, HNB temperatures remained well below the reported ignition temperatures of all the combustible materials evaluated in this study. Under the conditions tested, the evaluated HNB products did not produce visible signs of thermal damage to the materials tested. Nevertheless, lit cigarettes caused visible thermal damage to fabrics, producing burnt marks on mats and dry matter indicating significant fire hazard potential.