The answer: IQOS is Philip Morris International’s heated tobacco product, the tobacco industry’s most significant product pivot in decades, positioned as harm reduction while serving the industry’s core commercial interest in maintaining nicotine markets.

What IQOS is

IQOS (I Quit Ordinary Smoking) is a device that heats specially designed tobacco sticks (called HEETS or Terea) to approximately 350 degrees Celsius- below the combustion temperature of cigarettes, which burn at approximately 600 degrees. The heated tobacco produces an aerosol containing nicotine and flavor compounds without the combustion that produces tar, carbon monoxide, and most cigarette smoke’s carcinogenic byproducts.

The device consists of a holder (which heats the tobacco stick) and a charger unit. Each tobacco stick provides approximately six minutes of use or fourteen puffs, roughly equivalent to a cigarette in use duration and nicotine delivery.

What the evidence shows

Not harmless. IQOS aerosol contains nicotine at levels sufficient to maintain dependence and a range of toxic compounds, including volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and some tobacco-specific nitrosamines.

Nicotine dependence maintained. IQOS delivers nicotine with sufficient speed and concentration to maintain existing dependence and produce new dependence in naive users. People who switch from cigarettes to IQOS do not quit nicotine; they switch delivery mechanisms while maintaining the dependence that will drive continued product purchase.

Dual use problem. A significant proportion of IQOS users continue smoking cigarettes alongside IQOS use rather than switching completely.

Philip Morris International’s strategy

PMI has positioned IQOS as a harm reduction product and has lobbied regulators globally (including the US FDA, which granted IQOS a Modified Risk Tobacco Product authorization) for regulatory recognition of reduced harm claims.

The strategic context: PMI has stated a corporate goal of transitioning away from cigarettes toward smoke-free products. It’s their strategy for survival. The company is investing significantly in heated tobacco and other non-combusted products. It is commercially motivated in the sense that these products maintain nicotine markets, maintain customer relationships, and maintain revenue as cigarette regulations tighten globally.

A tobacco company selling a less harmful nicotine product is still a tobacco company selling nicotine dependence. The harm reduction is the commercial interest in maintaining that dependence.

Is IQOS available in India?

IQOS is banned in India under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act 2019, which prohibits electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and related devices. India’s ban is one of the most comprehensive globally, explicitly including heated tobacco products rather than limiting the prohibition to e-cigarettes.

HEETS and Terea tobacco sticks are therefore also prohibited; the device and its consumables are both covered by the ban.

IQOS is available in many international markets like Japan, South Korea, much of Europe, the United States, and others where it has achieved significant market share, particularly among younger adult smokers.

Indian travelers may encounter IQOS in these markets. Bringing IQOS devices or HEETS into India is prohibited under the 2019 Act; customs enforcement has seized such products at Indian airports.

The cessation question

IQOS is not a cessation tool. It is a nicotine delivery product that maintains dependence. People who switch completely from cigarettes to IQOS reduce their exposure to combustion-related carcinogens. They do not quit nicotine, do not extinguish the behavioral circuit, and do not progress toward the freedom from dependence that complete cessation produces.

For someone whose goal is harm reduction rather than complete cessation, and who has been unable to achieve complete cessation through multiple attempts, switching to NRT products is a much better option than falling prey to industry’s tool of addiction. IQOS is not cessation. It should not be positioned as cessation by those using it or those advising on it.

The one thing to hold onto

IQOS is a less harmful cigarette (anything is), not a path away from nicotine dependence.

It is banned in India for reasons that reflect a public health judgment that the harm reduction logic does not outweigh the risk of normalizing new nicotine product categories in a country with 270 million tobacco users and inadequate regulatory infrastructure to manage the market expansion that availability would produce.

The goal is not a less harmful nicotine delivery mechanism. The goal is freedom from the dependence that every nicotine delivery mechanism maintains.