“The first cigarette designed to be smoked inside its own lighter.”

Was digging through my nest, and found an old men’s magazine with this advertisement inside. Ever seen such a sight?

copied from the Accord Tobacco website:

Manufacturer:
Philip Morris USA, Altria
Description:
Cigarette smoking system using an electronic cigarette lighter and cleaning unit. Cigarettes are inserted into a hand-held heater that heats the rod. Uses a device called a lighter that heats the tobacco (about the size of an electronic pager). The special Accord cigarette is inserted into the lighter. The lighter electronically heats the tobacco. Heating the tobacco and releasing a favored smoke. Ultra low regular and Ultra Low Menthol. Accord – TM has been upgraded to a new test product called Heat Bar.
Claims:
The premium blend of tobaccos in Accord cigarettes guarantees a satisfying ultra low tar taste. Accord produces a lot less smoke because you smoke it in the Puff-Activated Lighter. And with less smoke around you and around others, there’s virtually no lingering odor. And there’s never any ash because the cigarette isn’t burning up in the lighter.[1]
Less environmental tobacco smoke, fewer carcinogens. Virtually no lingering odor. No ashes. A new way to smoke.
Product Design Feature:
Philip Morris developed Accord, a microelectric cigarette holder, to “address consumer concerns about health risks,” and as a direct competitive response to R.J. Reynolds’ “Premier” product. Unveiled in 1998, the battery-powered “smoking system,” which reduced visible smoke and ashes from the end of a cigarette, was a radically different kind of smoked tobacco product.
The device contained a microchip that sensed when an Accord cigarette was being puffed, and sent power to eight heating blades around the cigarette. The chip prevented ignition if conventional cigarettes were inserted into the lighter, and was also equipped with the equivalent of the television V-chip, a locking device for use by parents.
The device worked using a novel electronic sensor technology. Inhaling on a cigarette inserted in the device triggers the electrical heating element, which heats the cigarette to a temperature below that necessary to create combustion, but still delivers emissions which contain nicotine. The tobacco in the Accord cigarette is warmed only when puffed; smokers could take a puff from a cigarette in its holder, put the device down, and take another puff an hour later.

Very futuristic. Two questions:

Was this a forerunner to the vape systems so popular? and

Did this turn out to be much healthier than regular smoking?