Heated cigarettes release same cancer-causing chemicals as traditional cigarettes

“The tobacco industry’s most recent response to the documented harms of cigarette smoking was to launch new heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco cigarettes,” Reto Auer, MD, MAS, from the Institute of Primary Health Care at the University of Bern in Switzerland, and colleagues wrote. “Philip Morris International created IQOS (I-Quit-Ordinary-Smoking): disposable tobacco sticks soaked in propylene glycol, which are inserted in a holder in the HNB cigarette.”To get more news about Hitaste, you can visit hitaste.net official website.

“Philip Morris International claims that IQOS releases no smoke because the tobacco does not combust and the tobacco leaves are only heated not burned,” they added. “However, there can be smoke without fire. The harmful components of tobacco cigarette smoke are products of incomplete combustion (pyrolysis) and the degradation of tobacco cigarettes through heat (thermogenic degradation).”

Auer and colleagues analyzed and compared the contents and toxic compounds released in IQOS (IQOS Holder, IQOS Pocket Charger, Marlboro HeatSticks [regular], and Heets, Philipp Morris SA) smoke with conventional cigarettes (Lucky Strike Blue Lights). They used gas chromatography paired with a flame ionization detector to assess volatile organic compounds and nicotine, as well as high-performance liquid chromatography paired with a fluorescence detector to assess polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Data indicated that IQOS smoke contains similar levels of volatile organic compounds and nicotine as conventional cigarettes. In addition, heat-not-burn cigarettes released higher levels of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon acenaphthene than conventional cigarettes. Other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide were also present in IQOS smoke. IQOS had a lower temperature than the conventional cigarette (330 C vs. 684 C). Eighty-four percent of nicotine found in conventional cigarette smoke was present in IQOS smoke.

“The smoke released by IQOS contains elements from pyrolysis and thermogenic degradation that are the same harmful constituents of conventional tobacco cigarette smoke,” Auer and colleagues concluded. “Our analyses reveal that advertising slogans such as ‘heat-not-burn’ are no substitute for science. Dancing around the definition of smoke to avoid indoor-smoking bans is unethical.