Busting myths about better alternatives to smoking: Top 16 frequently asked questions
Answers to commonly asked questions about better alternatives to smoking. Learn more about vapes, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and oral smokeless products, including nicotine pouches and snus.
Nicotine
Is nicotine risk free?
No, nicotine is not risk-free and it is addictive. Certain people—including pregnant or breastfeeding women, and people with heart disease, severe high blood pressure, or diabetes—should not use tobacco or nicotine-containing products. Minors, in particular, should not have access to nicotine-containing products.
Is nicotine the main cause of smoking-related diseases?
No, nicotine is not the main cause of smoking-related diseases. These diseases, such as lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and emphysema, are caused primarily by inhaling harmful compounds formed when tobacco is burned. Nicotine is addictive and not risk free.
Do better alternatives to smoking contain nicotine?
Yes, all heated tobacco products that have been commercialized contain nicotine, because it occurs naturally in tobacco. Most vapes (also known as e-cigarettes or e-vapor devices) also contain nicotine. And most oral smokeless products, including nicotine pouches and snus, contain nicotine. Nicotine is one of the reasons people smoke, along with taste and ritual. In order for adult smokers to fully switch from cigarettes to better alternatives to smoking, these products generally need to contain nicotine.
Watch: What is nicotine?
How much do you really know about nicotine?
What is nicotine?
Percussion music starts
Title: What is nicotine
Nicotine occurs naturally in tobacco leaves and can be extracted by heating, burning or soaking the plant
Nicotine is addictive but is it not the primary cause of smoking related diseases.
Once inhaled, it is absorbed straight into the bloodstream where it travels through the body and to the brain
Nicotine binds itself to specific receptors and triggers the release of dopamine, which boosts attention but could also cause reward-seeking behavior.
Nicotine has short-term pharmacological effects, including increased heart rate and blood pressure.
It can take anywhere between 2 and 18 hours for nicotine to leave the body.
Nicotine should never be taken by adolescents, pregnant women or people with heart conditions
The best choice any smoker can make is to quit cigarettes and nicotine use altogether.
Smoke-free alternatives are only for adult smokers who would otherwise continue smoking.
They are not risk-free and contain nicotine, which is addictive.
Music ends
Alternatives to smoking
Do better alternatives to smoking carry a risk?
Yes, although heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes don’t burn tobacco, which is the main cause of smoking-related diseases, they are not risk-free. The best choice is always to quit tobacco and nicotine completely.
Fewer people are taking up smoking, so do we need better alternatives to smoking?
Yes, through the work of government regulation and public health campaigns, smoking prevalence declined 4.1 percent in the decade between 2005 and 2015, according to the World Health Organization. Yet despite these efforts, one billion people still smoke, and based on current trends, this figure is not expected to change in the near future.
Our advice is that if you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you smoke, quit. If you don’t quit, change.
Are better alternatives to smoking different to cigarettes?
Yes, better alternatives to smoking don’t burn tobacco, which means that, if they are scientifically substantiated and regulated to an appropriate standard, they are a better alternative to continuing to smoke cigarettes. Importantly, they are not risk-free. The best choice is always to quit tobacco and nicotine completely.
Is there genuine science behind PMI’s better alternatives to smoking?
Yes, Philip Morris International (PMI) has invested over USD 14 billion in research and development to offer better alternatives to smokers who don’t otherwise quit nicotine.
PMI has recruited talent from around the world to develop a hub of innovation at its R&D facility in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Since 2008, PMI has published more than 541 publications and book chapters related to its smoke-free products in peer-reviewed scientific journals. It registers all its clinical studies with ClinicalTrials.gov. It also publishes a Scientific Update—a summary of the latest research and developments relating to its better alternatives to smoking.
Watch: What's the difference between smoke and aerosol?
Smoke-free products are for adult smokers who would otherwise continue smoking.
What's the difference between smoke and aerosol?
Title: What’s the difference between smoke and aerosol?
Dr Serge Maedar, PhD in Chemistry, Global Head of Product Research, speaks to camera:
Smoke is really the result of combustion
so it contains a number of things, a great number of constituents,
a certain number of toxicants, but it also contains for example solid particles.
Aerosol on the other hand are much simpler when they are produced by heating tobacco,
they contains less compounds in general reduced, levels of toxicants and no solid particles
so these are very different species: smoke and aerosol
Or if you look at deeper the composition and all the components these are very different things
and really one is associated with combustion while the other is not associated with combustion at all
Text on screen reads: Smoke-free products are for adult smokers who would otherwise continue smoking.
They are not risk-free and contain nicotine, which is addictive.
The best choice nay smoker can make is to quit cigarettes and nicotine altogether.
Philip Morris International logo is seen on screen.
Smoke free products
Does PMI add synthetic nicotine to its better alternatives to smoking?
No, in our heated tobacco products, the nicotine is not added. It is natural component of the tobacco which is heated in our product. No extra nicotine is added.
In our e-cigarettes, the nicotine-forming part is a botanical extract made from tobacco plants which is added to the e-liquid.
Are all smoke-free products the same?
No, there are actually a number of differences—and some similarities—between heated tobacco devices (also known as heat-not-burn products), and e-cigarettes (also known as vapes, e-vapor products, and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems). They are all better alternatives to the continued use of cigarettes. But heated tobacco products heat real tobacco within a specific temperature range, generally using an electronic heat-control system to prevent it from burning. E-cigarettes, by contrast, usually vaporize a liquid solution containing nicotine and flavors when a user draws on it.
Are oral smokeless products—such as nicotine pouches and snus—better than continuing to smoke?
Yes. Our nicotine pouches and snus are not risk-free but represent a far better choice for adult smokers than continuing to smoke cigarettes.
E-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and vapes
Is vaping addictive?
Yes, vaping generally involves inhalation of nicotine, which is addictive, and not risk free. Quitting tobacco and nicotine completely is always the best choice. And while quitting can be difficult, millions of people do each year.
Do e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products contain tar?
No, one of the most harmful elements of cigarette smoke is what many people refer to as “tar.” It is the residue from cigarette smoke after a cigarette is burned, and is more correctly called Nicotine-Free Dry Particulate Matter (NFDPM), as it is measured by the weight of solid and liquid residue in cigarette smoke after the weight of nicotine and water has been subtracted.
Tar is not present in the aerosol of PMI's e-cigarettes or heated tobacco products. Since these products do not burn the tobacco, they do not produce tar. Their aerosol residue is fundamentally different from cigarette tar. Importantly though, this does not mean our better alternatives to smoking are risk-free.
Are heated tobacco products and vapes better than continuing to smoke?
Yes, while not risk free, when they are scientifically substantiated and regulated to ensure quality and safety, heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes are a better choice than continued smoking.
Heated tobacco products use tobacco. Aren’t they the same as cigarettes?
No, heated tobacco products are different from cigarettes. They heat real tobacco within a specific temperature range, usually using an electronic heat-control system, to prevent it from burning. The user inhales a tobacco vapor, not smoke.
When lit, cigarettes burn tobacco at temperatures above 600°C, flaring to more than 800°C when a smoker takes a puff. In the process, they create smoke, ash, tar, and high levels of harmful chemicals.
By eliminating combustion, scientifically substantiated heated tobacco products, while not risk free, are designed to significantly reduce the levels of harmful chemicals compared to cigarette smoke.
Do heated tobacco products and vapes give off smoke?
No, What may appear to be “smoke” emitting from a vape or heated tobacco product is actually an aerosol, which is a suspension of fine liquid and/or solid particles in a gas (usually air). Heated tobacco products and vapes do not emit smoke, as they have not burned the tobacco.
Cigarettes burn tobacco, which creates smoke, which is also an aerosol. However, the composition of the aerosol in smoke is very different from the aerosol emitted by heated tobacco products and vapes, as smoke contains thousands of chemicals, of which around a hundred have been identified as harmful or potentially harmful.
Do PMI’s heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes create second-hand smoke?
No, secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a combination of the smoke produced from the lit end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled by smokers. Public health authorities, including the WHO, have concluded that secondhand smoke causes diseases, including lung cancer and heart disease, in non-smokers. However, as our better alternatives to smoking do not burn tobacco, tests have shown that PMI’s e-cigarette and heated tobacco products are not a source of ETS. Smoke-free products are not risk-free though and the best choice is to quit tobacco and nicotine completely. Users of better alternatives to smoking should always remain mindful of using them around other people.
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