Perhaps, you are a smoker who is looking for alternatives to cigarettes. Today, our task is to figure out if IQOS differs from cigarettes. Is it less harmful to smokers? Is it worth switching to it, or at least try to do it? Let’s find the answers to these questions and learn how IQOS differs from traditional cigarettes.
5 Key Differences
Heating instead of burning
In a cigarette, tobacco burns at higher temperatures up to 800֯ С. IQOS does not burn tobacco but heats it to 300-350֯ С. The device operates based on HeatControl technology. To use IQOS, you need special HEETS sticks that can be bought at any online cigarettes store. There is a blade-shaped heating element inside the device. When the stick is inserted into the holder, the blade enters the compressed tobacco and begins to heat it from the inside.
Aerosol instead of fume
In IQOS, tobacco does not burn but only heats. Without burning, there is no smoke. When heated, an aerosol with a rich tobacco aroma evaporates from the stick. The IQOS filter does not look like a cigarette one. The main task of the filter in the stick is not to trap harmful substances, but to cool the aerosol to a comfortable temperature for inhalation.
95% less harmful substances
When the tobacco and paper in cigarette burns, they produce fume. A cigarette contains over 6,000 thousand different chemical compounds. 1-2% of them are dangerous and harmful to health. Among them are carcinogenic resins, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, etc. IQOS aerosol contains 95% less harmful substances compared to cigarette smoke. Therefore, switching from cigarettes to IQOS significantly reduces the health risk compared to smoking cigarettes.
No smell
Smoking has a significant disadvantage — an unpleasant smell. Besides, it is very sticky. It absorbs quickly into the skin and hair. A specific tobacco smell remains on your fingers, even if you only touched the filter all the time. There is no similar smell when using IQOS. The aerosol has its own smell, which quickly disappears.
No plaque on teeth
It is easy for dentists to recognize experienced smokers by the yellow-brown plaque on the teeth. Even professional cleaning is not always able to cope with traces of fume on tooth enamel. Aerosol leaves significantly less plaque on the teeth compared to cigarettes. However, if teeth already have cigarette smoke plaque, switching to IQOS will not eliminate it and will not affect the color.
In Conclusion
In addition to systems for heating tobacco, there are many other alternatives to traditional smoking: vapes, closed sub-systems, electronic cigarettes. The use of IQOS does not eliminate all health risks and is not completely harmless. This aerosol still contains nicotine, so if you are thinking about giving up smoking — IQOS could not be considered as a harmless replacement.