The old days of “smoke ’em if you got ’em” have been gone for a long time, and it seems that every day, more people kick the smoking habit. Even in the state I live, where cigarettes keep people employed and where a quarter of the population still smokes, smoking is on the downswing. Too many health concerns, too expensive, increasingly difficult to find, or just out of style, it seems like the glory days of smoking are on the way out. Philip Morris International is looking forward to quitting the cigarette business according to their CEO.
Now, Philip Morris isn’t going to quit making tobacco products, they’re just looking to possibly phase out smoked cigarettes in favor of a brand new products. It’s called IQOS, and it’s basically a smokeless cigarette. A little base heats tobacco enough to create inhaled vapor, but it doesn’t burn the tobacco completely. The company believes that the heated tobacco is less harmful than the cancer-causing burned tobacco in traditional cigarettes.
“I believe there will come a moment in time where I would say we have sufficient adoption of these alternative products … to start envisaging, together with governments, a phase-out period for cigarettes. I hope this time will come soon,”said Philip Morris International CEO Andre Calantzopoulos.
Philip Morris International is a different company from Philip Morris USA (which is a subsidiary of Altria), but I’d imagine if the IQOS product is successful, the USA won’t be too far behind when it comes to butting out Marlboros.
Tags: cigarettes, smoking, cigarette smoking, public health, smoking alternatives, philip morris, philip morris usa, marlboro, IQOS, IQOS smokeless cigarette, altria, philip morris international, Andre Calantzopoulos, unusual news, unusual statements, philip morris smokeless cigarettes, philip morris looking to quit cigarette business
