The problem is that cigarettes are still the most efficient nicotine-delivery
device ever created, says Scott McIntosh, PhD, associated director of the smoking research program at the University of Rochester, N.Y., who was not involved in the Rose project.
"It would be great to have a product that would deliver nicotine as well as a cigarette," McIntosh tells WebMD.
That's exactly what Rose's and colleagues -- including James E. Turner, co-inventor of the older Nicotrol/Nicorette inhaler -- set out to invent.
The
device they came up with does not use fire or heat. Instead, as the smoker draws air through the cigarette-shaped
device, a chemical called pyruvic acid is drawn into contact with nicotine, creating a cloud of nicotine pyruvate vapor.
As pyruvic acid is a naturally occurring chemical that's part of the metabolism of every cell in the body, Rose says it does not add toxicity to nicotine. In this regard, the device is very unlike a cigarette, which delivers tars and a number of other cancer-causing substances along with nicotine.
......
If more stringent tests of the device's safety go well, Rose says the device would be commercially available in three to five years. Duke University has filed patents on the product.
