LONDON, Oct 16 Reuters Big Tobacco firms including British American Tobacco are selling heat sticks made from nicotineinfused substances such as rooibos tea, countering an incoming European Union ban on flavoured heated tobacco products.

While the sticks mark a new way to inhale the addictive drug, health experts warn that their safety is unclear.

The industry has produced heatnotburn sticks containing tobacco for years, aiming to avoid the toxic chemicals released via combustion.

These reduced risk products, which are placed in a device to heat them, have helped offset falling demand for traditional cigarettes due to rising health awareness and heavy taxation in some markets.

British American Tobacco BAT has now gone a step further, launching a version of its sticks containing nicotineinfused Rooibos tea instead of tobacco in nine European markets, including Germany and Greece. The company plans to roll the product out globally, it told Reuters.

The move provides adult nicotine users and smokers with the widest possible range of reducedrisk products, BAT said in a statement.

There may, however, be as yet unknown risks associated with inhaling the tea, researchers warned.

Anything that burns or is vaporised… and inhaled into the lungs, probably will cause some effects, said Erikas Simonavicius, a research associate at King39;s College London.

Tobacco companies have yet to publish any research showing the health implications of rooibos or other zerotobacco…