In many ways the iolite is sort of like a high tech version of a hookah. Much as an e-cig is. It is an improvement on an old idea. With hookah there is still tar. You are still breathing in some amount of smoke. Whereas the Iolite is actually a vaporizer which removes smoke from the equation completely, creating vapor only.ok probably totally off the mark but is this anything like the iolite inhaler???