bat science - About RD
Our Group Research and Development Centre is based in the UK, and we have laboratories in Southampton and Cambridge. The Southampton laboratories provide the core facilities, where we are undertaking research in a broad spectrum of scientific fields including molecular biology, toxicology and chemistry. The Cambridge laboratories, under the title Advanced Technologies Cambridge (ATC), focus on tobacco biotechnology.
The research discussed on this website also includes some of the work undertaken in collaboration with external researchers in countries around the world, for example, in the United States, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, China, Japan and Russia.
Our research activities
Traditionally our research efforts have been primarily focused on understanding cigarette smoke chemistry, identifying toxic constituents (toxicants), understanding smoking behaviour and trying to develop products with lower levels of smoke toxicants. We have been conducting research for over 50 years. An overview of our historic research can be found in the book ‘Sometimes a cigarette is just a cigarette’ [ 1 ]. A list of British American Tobacco’s research publications appears in the Library section of this site.
Our current research focus is on developing less harmful tobacco products and the science needed to assess them considers both combustible and smokeless tobacco products.
The concept of harm reduction
Harm reduction is a well-established public health concept that seeks pragmatic ways to minimise the health impact of an activity or behaviour which carries inherent risks. An example of harm reduction strategy is the use of seat belts and airbags in cars.
However, in the context of tobacco and health policy, few governments currently support the development of reduced risk tobacco products. Most governments simply advocate prevention and cessation.
Harm reduction and tobacco
Today the concept of harm reduction is increasingly being considered in relation to tobacco use. In practice, an effective approach to tobacco harm reduction should result in a reduction in tobacco-related morbidity and mortality in the population while accepting widespread tobacco and nicotine use.
Regulatory policies based on prevention and cessation – discouraging people from starting to smoke and encouraging them to quit – have been and continue to be central to most governments tobacco control efforts. However, in most countries a sizable portion of the population continue to use tobacco products. Moreover, because of the predicted increases in the global population, although the proportion of adults who smoke is likely to continue declining, in 10 years’ time there may still be as many, or more, tobacco consumers globally as there are today.
The scientific research detailed on this site is our contribution to the development and scientific evaluation of novel tobacco products. This effort should be considered in the context of product regulation and harm reduction strategies and policies.
Combustible products
For combustible products we are basing our overall approach on the principles of the 2001 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM); ‘Clearing the Smoke: assessing the science base for tobacco harm reduction 
’.
The IOM devised the term 'potential reduced-exposure product' (PREP), which they defined as a product that (1) results in the substantial reduction in exposure to one or more tobacco toxicants and (2) can reasonably be expected to reduce the risk of one or more specific diseases or other adverse health effects.
We have divided the scientific challenge of developing a PREP into three sub components:
- Determining which toxicants in smoke are significant for disease, and developing tools to measure smokers’ exposure to them.
- Developing products that reduce exposure to smoke toxicants, either specifically or generally and, through clinical testing, demonstrating that they do.
- Developing a portfolio of scientific tools that, using a ‘weight of evidence’ approach, have the potential to predict whether an observed reduction in exposure can be expected to reduce the risk of tobacco-related disease.
The scientific challenge involved in developing and evaluating PREPs is considerable, and many of the scientific skills and methods required to assess potentially reduced-risk tobacco products are relatively new or yet to be developed.
Smokeless products
The category of smokeless tobacco products, such as snus, is comparatively new for British American Tobacco. While there is strong epidemiological evidence to support this type of product as substantially reduced risk compared to cigarettes, there is still research needed to fully characterise the different types of smokeless tobacco product available. In addition we need to better understand aspects of product design, consumer behaviour and how we can further innovate in this category.
Our scientists
Our scientists come from a wide variety of industry, governmental and academic backgrounds. At our Group Research and Development Centre in Southampton we have more than 300 staff, including at least 40 PhDs. ATC in Cambridge has a further group of around 40 people.
Historically our scientists were predominantly chemists, but in recent years scientists with research interests in a wider range of the biological sciences have joined our team as our research programme has expanded into new fields of science. This range includes genomics, proteomics, toxicological and risk assessment modelling, biomarkers of exposure and harm and clinical exposure studies.
Working with us
By sharing our research findings with the external scientific community, we seek to collaborate with others - particularly members of the academic and public health communities - to improve the breadth and quality of our research.
Tobacco industry funding of research has been the subject of considerable criticism. We believe that science should be judged on its merits and that tobacco industry funding of research should be open and transparent.
We expect scientists who receive grants from us to interpret and publish the findings of their work without regard to the funding source.
Our facilities
We maintain modern and well-equipped scientific facilities and mostly utilise equipment typically found in an 
academic or commercial fundamental research establishment. However, as tobacco smoke is a complex and changing aerosol, we face some unusual biological and toxicological challenges in our research.
Some of the equipment and methods we use or have developed in-house, including smoking machines and methods to deliver whole smoke to cells, are novel and some will require validation prior to being accepted by the general academic community.
- Proctor, C. (2003). Sometimes a cigarette is just a cigarette. London: Sinclair-Stevenson.
