NEW YORK-- September 20, 2023 -- A potential tenfold reduction in smoking-attributable deaths is possible if people who currently smoke were to switch to smoke-free products, Jacek Olczak, CEO of Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) (NYSE: PM) will state in a speech today. He will explain the role smoke-free products can play in ending cigarette smoking globally and the human consequences of inaction.
“For over a decade, PMI has championed a smoke-free future. Having invested more than $10.5 billion to scientifically research, develop, and commercialize smoke-free products—which today account for more than a third of our total net revenues—we are living this future,” says Olczak. “Yet, inexplicably, there are countries stuck in the past where smokers can easily access cigarettes—the most harmful form of nicotine consumption—but not the better option of smoke-free alternatives.”
Using the World Health Organization’s data, estimates, and methodologies, along with other third-party data, PMI calculated the potential public health impact of the world’s smokers switching from cigarettes to less harmful, smoke-free products. The hypothetical model shows that if smoke-free products are assumed to be 80 percent less risky than cigarettes and if people who currently smoke were to switch to them completely, then over their lifetime, there’s a potential for a tenfold reduction in smoking-attributable deaths compared with historical tobacco control measures alone.
In a world that demands change, people are counting on their governments to keep up with technological advancements while ensuring innovations are appropriately regulated. According to a new international survey conducted by independent research firm Povaddo for PMI, more than half of global respondents (56 percent) believe their government needs to consider the role better alternatives such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products can play in eradicating cigarette use in their country.
Moreover, 8 in 10 global respondents (82 percent) agree they would be somewhat or very angry, frustrated, or upset to learn that a breakthrough that could help address a societal issue was not made available to the public due to government inaction, and 88 percent agree that public health authorities should fully embrace and seek to learn from evidence and data from other countries.
During a streamed broadcast via Reuters’ (
@ReutersPlus) on X (formerly Twitter) today at 10am ET, Olczak explains that, while there are limitations to any hypothetical analysis, real-world examples from countries that accept tobacco harm reduction confirm its positive impact.
Public health data show[1], for instance, that Sweden has one of the lowest smoking rates in the developed world, at just 5.8 percent. This is largely due to the availability of snus—a moist oral tobacco product—which Swedish men began switching to decades ago. Today, male mortality rates due to tobacco are much lower in Sweden[2] compared with other European Union countries, where snus is banned. Putting that in perspective, the Swedish Snus Commission estimates that more than 350,000 smoking-attributable deaths among men could have been avoided each year if the other EU countries had matched Sweden’s tobacco-related mortality rate.
There is also compelling evidence from Japan. In 2019—five years after heated tobacco products were introduced in that country—independent studies[3] showed an unprecedented decline in cigarette sales. The U.K., which has adopted smoke-free products to help adults abandon cigarettes, has also seen smoking rates fall significantly.[4]
“Innovations become advancements when they address existing issues and offer improvements. Decades ago, our industry was challenged to make cigarettes less harmful. We have delivered, creating science-based alternatives that remove combustion, the primary factor in smoking-related disease,” says Olczak. “It is no longer a case of if smoke-free alternatives are better than cigarette smoking; it is a case of by how much.”
