How harmful are steam rooms and IQOS?

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Is the harm of electronic cigarettes a myth?

Cigarettes have a devastating effect on the body: they cause diseases of the heart, teeth and gums, type 2 diabetes, cancer of the lungs, throat, mouth and other oncological diseases. All these negative effects are not even associated with nicotine, but with auxiliary substances contained in cigarettes and released during combustion: tar, carbon monoxide and other toxic components.

Health professionals are not yet able to assess the long-term effects of vaping and the use of tobacco heating systems: these devices are new to the market, and smoking-related diseases can develop slowly. In addition, many of the studies are funded by the manufacturers of these devices, so data may not be reliable. It is not yet possible to find out whether smokers can develop any diseases after 20-30 years of constant use of electronic cigarettes.

However, there are already studies that show that alternative forms of smoking still have a negative impact on health. It is still difficult to compare them with cigarettes: according to preliminary estimates , the level of toxicity to the body of electronic devices is lower, but more data is needed to confirm this information.

WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remind that any way of using tobacco is harmful - there are no safe forms of smoking.

Wait, is the IQOS dangerous too?

Tobacco heating systems (CHS) — IQOS, Glo, and others — heat tobacco in a stick to about the smoldering temperature of a regular cigarette, from 200 to 350°C. This is enough to release nicotine in an amount comparable to a traditional cigarette.

But despite the fact that combustion does not occur, toxic substances - components of an aerosol obtained from tobacco - are still formed. This is confirmed even by a study conducted by Philip Morris (manufacturer of IQOS). According to the authors of a review published in the American Journal of Physiology, the fact that compounds characteristic of cigarette smoke are released when tobacco is heated may mean that the level of toxicity of SNTs may be similar to that of cigarettes.

On the one hand, experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) note that the amount of harmful components in the aerosol formed when sticks are heated is lower than in tobacco smoke. However, sticks contain toxicants not found in cigarettes, and these too can be harmful to health.

The risk of developing diseases - standard companions of tobacco addiction - chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart pathologies, lung cancer, etc. - with the use of SNT is still difficult to assess. Researchers disagree: on the one hand, a review of the European Respiratory Society cites evidence that people who switched to tobacco heating devices from regular cigarettes did not improve lung function and did not decrease inflammation of the lung tissue. On the other hand, the authors of an article from the International Journal of Environmental and Health Research write that the potential risks of developing various chronic diseases with the use of SNT are lower than with traditional smoking. And according to the American Journal of Physiology, devices for heating tobacco, like cigarettes, cause serious disorders in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Both the CDC and the WHO emphasize that there is insufficient evidence for the lower toxicity of tobacco heating systems compared to cigarettes. Dependence on electronic devices develops just as quickly, because with both methods of smoking, nicotine enters the body.

So smoking is bad anyway?

Electronic vaporizers are devices that generate an aerosol from a liquid containing propylene glycol , various flavors, and sometimes nicotine. Vaporizers, unlike heating systems, do not contain tobacco: nicotine is usually present in the liquid in its pure form.

Some manufacturers of these devices claim that vaping is safer than smoking, since there are no products of heating and burning tobacco in the vapor. However, the available data do not yet allow us to assert that electronic cigarettes really do less harm than conventional ones: as already mentioned, nicotine is addictive in any way it is used. Propylene glycol heating products settle in the lungs and cause inflammation, and can be aerosolized when heated. The CDC reports that components of this aerosol may cause cancer and lung disease.

In 2019-2020, there was a lot of talk in the United States about “vaper disease” – a lung disease caused by smoking electronic vaporizers. As of February 2020, according to the CDC, there have been more than 2,800 hospitalizations and 68 deaths associated with the disease. The cause of the disease is not yet known, but the lung damage has been linked to vitamin E acetate, a substance found in some vape liquids.

So vapes won't help me quit smoking?

The WHO and CDC emphasize that there is no evidence that e-cigarettes and tobacco heating systems are effective as replacement therapy for smokers. So far, no studies have shown that alternative ways of smoking can replace traditional smoking cessation devices - patches, sprays, and the like.
In addition, when trying to quit smoking with the help of electronic devices, many begin to use them at the same time as regular cigarettes. This combination of smoking methods accelerates the development of addiction.