Tobacco control: Smokeless Cigarette products are not as harmless as they are claimed!

March 19, 2018 news / BIOON / -- iqos, a smokeless tobacco product with "only heat but not combustion", is labeled as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes However, a recent study published online in the journal tobacco control suggests that it may not be as harmless as the manufacturer claims Iqos is a battery powered electronic device that mimics the appearance, taste and sensory experience of cigarettes It contains a specially designed heating rod that uses smoke bombs to deliver nicotine It can be heated to just below the temperature of a traditional cigarette when it is burned, so the user can inhale tobacco steam rather than smoke Tobacco smoke is a mixture of chemicals that are very harmful to human health Manufacturer Philip Morris has evaluated iqos in several published studies, but there are few independent studies To fill this gap, researchers in the United States began to evaluate the performance of iqos under five different smoke spraying conditions, as well as the impact of two cleaning schemes, i.e thoroughly clean the liquid and residue on the heating rod after each heating rod is used, and use the cleaning brush attached with the product to clean the two schemes recommended by the manufacturer after every 20 heating rods are used The researchers also want to assess whether plastic polymer membranes used to cool steam pose a health risk Each iqos heating bar will only be used for 6 minutes, then it will automatically shut down and need to be charged before use Therefore, in order to maximize the use of each heating rod, users in real life have to shorten the time interval of each spraying, speed up their smoking rate, and potentially inhale more steam, the researchers said In case of lack of oxygen, the smoke bomb will be carbonized due to thermal decomposition When each heating rod is not thoroughly cleaned after use, the degree of carbonization is higher This means that the accumulation of debris and liquid on the heater increases the pyrolysis temperature The analysis of the polymer membrane shows that the heating rod has enough heat to melt the membrane, no matter whether it is cleaned or not, even if it does not contact the heating element directly According to the cleaning instructions recommended by the manufacturer, the carbonization of the heating rod and the melting of the polymer film will be increased The researchers further found that at temperatures that are easily accessible to all users, the molten membrane releases formaldehyde cyanohydrin This chemical is highly toxic even at very low levels "Iqos is not strictly a 'fever only, non combustible' tobacco product," the researchers wrote This research shows that the IOS system is not as harmless as it is claimed, and emphasizes that the number of users between the products is growing rapidly, and people urgently need to carry out further security testing Original source: iqos: evidence of copyright and release of a toxic from plastic, tobacco control (2018) Doi: 10.1136/tobaccontrol-2017-054104