page_title: Heated tobacco product
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Heated tobacco product / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Philip Morris IQOS Hybrid - Burnt out tobacco from IQOS Heet stick
context_page_description: There are various types of heat-not-burn products. Heat-not-burn tobacco products heat up tobacco using a battery-powered heating system. As it starts to heat the tobacco, it generates an aerosol that contains nicotine and other chemicals, that is inhaled. They also generate smoke. Gases, liquid and solid particles, and tar are found in the emissions. They contain nicotine, which is the reason these products are highly addictive. They also contain additives not found in tobacco, and are frequently flavored. It heats tobacco leaves at a lower temperature than traditional cigarettes, which is about 250–350 °C. These products provide some of the behavioral aspects of smoking. The heat source may be embedded; external; or a heated sealed chamber; to deliver nicotine using tobacco leaf. Some use product-specific customized cigarettes. Without using an electrically controlled heating system, there is a device that uses a carbon heat source that, once lit, passes heat to a processed tobacco plug. There are devices that use cannabis. They are not electronic cigarettes.
context_section_description: Nicotine is released from tobacco heated above 150 °C. Combustible tobacco cigarettes reach about 900 °C during a puff and smoulder at about 400 °C between puffs. The burning process, substances emitted and their levels vary at different temperatures. Distillation, the process during which nicotine and aromas are transferred from tobacco to smoke, occurs below 300 °C; pyrolysis occurs at about 300 °C–700 °C, entails the decomposition of biopolymers, proteins, and other organic materials and generates the majority of substances emitted in smoke; and combustion occurs above 750 °C and results in the generation of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water. The temperature the tobacco reaches greatly varies among heat-not-burn tobacco products. It depends on the process used to heat the tobacco. HeatSticks are heated to a maximum of 350 °C, a temperature sufficient to enable pyrolytic decomposition of some organic materials, while the glo iFuse heats tobacco to around 35 °C. Formation of toxic volatile organic compounds, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein, via dehydration and oxidation of the humectants, propylene glycol and glycerin, have been reported in e-cigarette aerosols at similar temperatures as IQOS. In addition, flavoring chemicals in e-cigarettes undergo thermal degradation and contribute significantly to levels of toxic aldehydes emitted in e-cigarette aerosol. Carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides, soot or tars, and aldehydes in the emissions demonstrate that these products undergo thermal degradation. The solids in the emissions have been called nicotine-free dry particulate matter rather than tar in papers written by people connected to the tobacco industry. Gases, liquid and solid particles are also found in the emissions.
  Since the constituents of HeatSticks may be different from that of combustible cigarettes, including flavorants and additives, it is plausible that the IQOS aerosol may contain substances not present in tobacco smoke. The emissions of the IQOS HeatSticks and the IQOS menthol mini-cigarettes contains about three times the amount of water and about half the amount of tar found in the emissions of traditional cigarettes. The IQOS HeatSticks do not generate a flame, they are charred following use. Heat-not-burn tobacco products including IQOS generate smoke. Up until 2016, Phillip Morris International researchers stated their IQOS product produces smoke.
  The heat-not-burn tobacco product consists of 3 components with different functions. These include the tobacco stick with processed tobacco, a pen-like heater (holder), in which the tobacco stick is inserted, which is then heated by means of an electrically controlled heating element, and a charger (the charger), which recharges the heater after use. The heat-not-burn tobacco products automatically stops the heating process after 6 minutes or 14 moves, so that pyrolysis products and pollutant release are limited in time as well as by a maximum number of puffs per stick. Heat-not-burn tobacco products may not generate side-stream smoke because they do not fully combust, but the temperatures reached are sufficient for pyrolytic reactions to happen. There are devices that demonstrate pyrolysis or combustion, but research has not determined whether it is pyrolysis or combustion. The tobacco stick contains a compressed tobacco film as well as several filter elements. The tobacco film consists of a dried tobacco suspension that has been rolled up into a paper-thin brown tobacco foil. This consists of about 70% tobacco as well as humectants, binders and flavorings. Water and glycerin are used as humectants to prevent drying out and to promote aerosol formation upon heating. The filter elements consist of 2 independent systems: A polymer film filter that cools the aerosol, followed by a soft cellulose acetate mouthpiece filter that mimics the sensory aspects of a traditional cigarette.
  Heat-not-burn tobacco products are a battery-powered systems that produce nicotine-containing emissions by heating tobacco. For this purpose, tobacco sti
caption: Tobacco film (right side) following use.
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