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About IQOS
Our smoke-free alternative
The science behind IQOS
IQOS science
We believe in science. We believe it can change the lives of millions of smokers, who would otherwise continue to smoke. To this effect, we recruited scientists to work on an important idea: developing less harmful products that cigarette smokers can switch to if they don’t quit. Hundreds of scientists and engineers at PMI’s global Research and Development centers in Switzerland and Singapore have developed and evaluated IQOS, an innovative electronic device that heats and not burns tobacco. It produces a tobacco vapor that delivers nicotine.
Find out which scientific innovations IQOS heated tobacco is offering:
Why heating is better than burning
Technology – the world revolves around it. Over the years, it has radically changed our lives for the better. The way we work, the way we communicate, the way we travel. By combining science and technology is how we developed a better alternative to continued smoking.
IQOS heats tobacco instead of burning it for a simple reason: the burning of tobacco emits high amounts of harmful chemicals. IQOS Heat-not-Burn technology prevents tobacco from burning. This means it significantly reduces the number and level of harmful chemicals emitted compared to cigarette smoke: using IQOS creates an aerosol that contains 95* fewer harmful or potentially harmful substances compared to cigarettes.
Does IQOS contain tar?
“Tar” describes the total weight of the residue from cigarette smoking, absent nicotine and water. The term “tar” is traditionally used in connection with cigarette smoking and does not entirely apply to IQOS tobacco vapor:
Tar is a smoke residue that is created by burning a cigarette, whereby IQOS tobacco vapor does not contain any solid substances and is therefore not comparable to cigarette smoke.
When using IQOS, no tar is created because it heats tobacco - an aerosol residue is created that is fundamentally different from tar and contains significantly lower amounts of harmful chemicals.
Information: Although IQOS does not produce tar, IQOS is not risk-free and provides nicotine that is addictive.
The difference between IQOS aerosol and smoke
IQOS tobacco vapor is less harmful than cigarette smoke. To demonstrate this, we conducted a comprehensive assessment program that included 10 clinical studies on aerosol chemistry (as well as data from 18 non-clinical studies), and involved thousands of participants in the US, Japan, UK and Poland. Evidence demonstrates that switching completely to IQOS, while not risk-free, presents less risk of harm compared with continuing to smoke cigarettes.
Heating technology
When a cigarette is lit, the tobacco burns at temperatures of around 600°C. This burning process generates smoke and ash; when a smoker takes a puff, the temperature rises above 800°C at the burning tip. Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of over 6000 chemical substances, around 100 of which have been to linked smoking-related diseases by public health authorities.
IQOS Heat-not-Burn Technology heats tobacco to a lower temperature (less than 350°C), ensuring that combustion does not occur. Because there is no combustion, IQOS does not produce smoke. It generates a tobacco vapor with 95%* less harmful chemicals compared to cigarettes.
Important information: It does not necessarily equal a 95% reduction in risk. IQOS is not risk-free.
*”95% less” represents the average reductions in levels of a range of harmful chemicals (excluding nicotine) compared to the smoke of a reference cigarette (3R4F). It does not necessarily equal a 95% reduction in risk. IQOS is not risk-free. The tobacco used in this process contains nicotine, which is addictive.
Tested to the highest standards
IQOS has gone through robust scientific assessments, including, to date, 18 non-clinical and 10 clinical studies involving thousands of participants. The totality of evidence available shows that, while IQOS use is not risk-free, switching completely to IQOS presents less risk to your health than continuing to smoke cigarettes.
IQOS is not risk free and delivers nicotine, which is addictive. The best decision any smoker can make is to quit tobacco and nicotine use altogether.
*3-month clinical study conducted in US and Japan with 160 adult smokers each, under near real-world conditions.
This product is not risk-free - for adult use only.