An Overview of iQOS® as a New Heat-Not-Burn Tobacco Product and Its Potential Effects on Human Health and the Environment

Tobacco smoke from regular cigarettes contains a number of harmful chemicals such as nicotine, arsenic, benzene, carbon monoxide, heavy metals, and tobacco-derived nitrosamines. About 1% of over 7000 chemical substances formed by burning tobacco are identified as the leading causes or possible risk factors of smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and emphysema. The concept of heating tobacco without combustion and smoke has been designed for more than two decades. The products developed with this idea, known as "Heat-Not-Burn" tobacco cigarettes, were first introduced in the late 1980s but did not achieve commercial success. However, the tobacco giants have been trying to remarket tobacco heating systems with new technological and modified features for over 10 years. I-Quit-Ordinary-Smoking (iQOS (R)) is one of the latest heat-not-burn tobacco products, first launched in Japan and Italy. The company then made a submission to the Food and Drug Administration as a modified-risk tobacco product application to sell its own tobacco-heating device iQOS (R) under its Marlboro (R) brand in the USA with reduced-risk claims in 2016, but it was rejected. This device is, however, now sold in more than four dozen countries. There are some striking claims that iQOS (R), which is described as a novel hybrid product between traditional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes, offers an alternative way to substantially reduce the amount of harmful components compared with traditional cigarettes by its new technology in which tobacco is heated up to 350 degrees C instead of being burnt. It is claimed to produce vapour containing nearly 90% less toxic substances than cigarette smoke and not be a source of second-hand smoking negatively affecting indoor air quality. The purpose of this article is to objectively review the potential effects of iQOS (R) on human health and the environment by searching and integrating the published research findings.