Philip Morris continues its offensive in favor of heated tobacco

The world's largest tobacco company, Philip Morris International (PMI), is continuing its efforts to present itself as a health organization by promoting a smoke-free world - but not without tobacco, of course. In a context of declining sales of traditional cigarettes, Philip Morris CEO André Calantzopolous is encouraging the promotion and information campaigns on alternative products for the sole purpose of profit. He is seeking to improve his company's relations with the global health community by positioning itself as a pioneer in the field of "reduced-risk" tobacco products, which PMI believes could save millions of lives by offering smokers less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. To this end, the PMI CEO is calling for different rules, in terms of taxation and health messages on packaging, and above all, authorization to advertise these new products. Giving in to these demands would mean going back decades to a time when the tobacco industry sowed doubt and manipulated public opinion about the real health harms of smoking.

The tobacco industry's promotion of pseudo-harm reduction dates back to the 1920s, when Lucky Strike promoted itself as "less irritating to the throat"When, after the Second World War, scientists formally demonstrated the causal link between smoking and lung cancer, manufacturers introduced filters and then, in the late 1960s, "light" cigarettes.

All these new products were designed to keep people smoking by giving them the impression that their consumption was less dangerous for their health. As has now been scientifically proven, none of these "innovations" protected the health of smokers, and some even increased the risks, which the industry knew full well.

Over the past decade, the implementation of measures recommended by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) such as tax increases, health warnings and plain packaging, and bans on smoking in public places have led to a decline in cigarette sales, jeopardizing the future of the tobacco cartel. To avoid disappearing, these companies are developing new survival strategies based once again on pseudo-risk reduction, with the promotion of a smoke-free world through heated tobacco.

©Tobacco Free Generation