Debate Against Smoke-Free Products Pushing People to Smoke Tobacco More-PMI
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest global public health threats, killing over eight million people per year, out of which more than seven million are as a result of direct tobacco use while 1.3 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
The WHO says there are currently 1.3 billion smokers around the world, 80 percent living in low- and middle-income countries where the burden of tobacco-related deaths is also heaviest, with the commodity killing half of its users who do not quit.
However, with technologies for safer alternatives away from combustion tobacco being developed, especially in cases where quitting cannot be achieved, Philip Morris International (PMI) is concerned that skepticism against harm reduction is delaying the progress that comes with the benefits of smoke-free products.
During the recent 2023 Smoke-Free Technovation which was hosted at the PMI Research and Development Centre in Neuchatel, Switzerland, PMI Chief Executive Officer CEO Jacek Olczak was particularly concerned that there is a lot of debate against harm reduction which is being done in the public domain, without scientific evidence backing it.
Mr. Olczak said this debate is pushing people more into smoking tobacco instead of using the alternatives, a situation which is compromising the health of many who cannot quit smoking because they are addicted.
During the event which was the seventh edition, conversations among media and other stakeholders from around the world focused on the crucial roles that innovation, technology, and science can play in enabling a better future for everyone, through the provision of smoke-free products.
The event also highlighted the need to harness the full potential of innovation and evidence-based policies that are needed to steer collective efforts toward eliminating smoking.
Mr. Olczak said the debate against smoke-free products is negating the efforts to provide harm reduction alternatives to millions of smokers, and pushing those who cannot quit smoking to continue with combustion tobacco instead of using the safer alternatives, that science has already proven to be effective.
He says that there is a need for stakeholders to be objective about how they approach the subject of harm reduction in tobacco because the truth is that millions of smokers need safer alternatives, the argument being that advocating against smoke-free products has no scientific evidence backing it.
“Smoke-free products are already helping millions of people and there is a need to protect populations from combustion tobacco, whether they are rich or poor. Harm reduction is not an excuse for us but a means of protecting smokers from harm, especially those who cannot quit the use of tobacco,” Mr. Olczak said.
He says that there is a need for governments across the globe to encourage evidence-based policies that support harm reduction if smoking is to be eliminated.
However, making readily available smoke-free products, especially in middle-income countries and those that are least developed seems to be faced by policy inconsistencies or indeed the non-existence of favourable regulatory environments to support harm reduction.
Mr. Olczak says that governments need to commit to a smoke-free future by working on policies that will support this because harm reduction innovations are not for the rich, but for everyone who needs harm-reduction products for tobacco use.
Meanwhile, PMI Senior Vice President External Affairs Gregoire Verdeaux said it is sad that despite statistics indicating that nine out of ten smokers fail to quit tobacco, there are still some regulators who tell smokers to quit or die, without offering alternatives.
“What is needed is changing to smoke-free products that have been scientifically substantiated to be better than smoking,” Mr. Verdeaux said.
Mr. Verdeaux also led a discussion on what success looks like when regulating smoke-free alternatives.
Citing Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, the U.K., the U.S., and other countries, he made the case for inclusive and innovative frameworks that have complemented traditional tobacco control measures in expediting the decline of smoking.
“The number of smokers globally has remained virtually unchanged for the past 30 years,” said Verdeaux, who drew attention to the upcoming session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in Panama next month, as a crucial juncture to change the global smoking rates status quo.
Gizelle Baker, Vice President of Global Scientific Engagement, and Luca Rossi, Vice President of Product & Process Technology, demonstrated the rigor and transparency that govern PMI’s science-driven approach.
They took the time to dispel myths about nicotine and emphasized that combustion is the primary cause of smoking-related diseases and not nicotine.
Dr. Baker’s message was clear: “Science around smoke-free products is no longer a debate. Extensive and rigorous studies have demonstrated that, compared to smoking, switching to our smoke-free products results in a significant reduction in the risk of smoking-related disease.”
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