TL;DR – Big news.
The headline might have sounded strange but it’s true – Philip Morris International, the multibillion-dollar company behind Marlboro and other brands, hopes to stop manufacturing cigarettes entirely.
That is not to say that the company wishes to eradicate tobacco products. Instead, their focus is now to move into smoke-free products, such as the IQOS, a device that heats tobacco rather than burning it.
It claims the product can potentially reduce the number of noxious chemicals found in cigarette smoke by 95 percent, although research is still being conducted.
According to Andre Calantzopoulos, CEO of Phillip Morris International, “if we stop selling cigarettes, someone else is going to sell them because people buy them.”
“So I don’t think that will have any impact on public health or the health of people.
“At the end of the day, the ambition we have is to replace cigarettes as soon as possible, with better alternatives for the people who continue smoking.”
Ok can.
Just so you know, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says tobacco use causes nearly six million deaths globally per year.
(Cover image via)
