British American Tobacco has announced the launch of an iPad app of its Science and Technology Report 2014.
‘The report – the first of its kind in the tobacco industry – provides an overview of not only BAT’s ongoing research work in tobacco harm reduction but also its aims in leveraging world-class science to develop and assess novel technologies that will lead to the creation of safer tobacco and nicotine products, the company said in a press note issued on Thursday.
‘The new app, available free in the iTunes store, contains the entire 26-page report with additional multimedia content, including zoomable images and video interviews with key BAT scientists.’
BAT’s Group Research & Development division says it is working towards a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of smoking-related disease and the development of reduced toxicant products.
“Given the enormous negative impact that cigarette smoking has on public health, we have long believed that there is an urgent need to develop products that reduce this impact, and that the building of the emerging science base needed to evaluate these products should be world-class and non-competitive,” said David O’Reilly, group scientific director.
“The time has come for tobacco and nicotine research to become mainstream, and fundamental for progress is transparency in all areas.”
The Science and Technology report has been downloaded more than 90,000 times from www.bat-science.com (where a responsive web design formatted for other tablets is available) since it was published online in January.
‘It details BAT’s continuing areas of harm reduction research, such as aerosol science, clinical research, plant breeding and 21st century toxicology,’ the press note said.
‘It also points to opportunities for collaborative research aimed at identifying the most important toxicants and their dose–response relationship to various diseases.
‘These include developing technologies to selectively reduce toxicant levels in tobacco and volatile toxicants in smoke, and progressing next-generation heat-not-burn prototypes, as well as e-cigarette technologies.’
BAT said it was hoped that the new app would broaden the reach of the Science and Technology report, facilitating further dialogue and co-operation on tobacco regulatory science.
“It’s a call for more collaborative research between all interested parties, in an area of scientific endeavour that could become one of the most important public health initiatives of the 21st Century – tobacco harm reduction,” said Chris Proctor, BAT’s chief scientific officer.