PMI’s 2030 vision
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 17:14 Philip Morris is in the news again.
It's 14 months since chief executive Andre Calantzopoulos told the Today programme (BBC Radio 4) that PMI could stop making conventional cigarettes.
The announcement made headlines around the world.
In June last year the company's UK and Ireland MD Peter Nixon told the same programme, "We are absolutely serious – one day we want to stop selling cigarettes."
In October PMI attracted more attention by announcing it was going to support a new initiative, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, by giving it $1 billion over twelve years.
Four weeks ago the company placed advertisements in UK newspapers that declared, 'Our New Year's Resolution. We're trying to give up cigarettes'.
At the same time PMI launched a shiny new website, Smoke-Free Future. Visit it for yourself but here's a taste:
Cigarette smoking causes serious disease and is addictive. Without question, the best decision any smoker can make is to quit smoking. And many people do. In the UK, the number of smokers has halved over the last 20 years.
Many people quit without professional help. Others quit with the support of family, counselling services or cessation aids.
Under 'More information on the benefits of quitting' the site adds, 'Whatever the method, what matters most is quitting.'
Behind all this activity is iQOS, PMI's new heated tobacco device. Launched in Japan, where it has proved immensely popular with many smokers, iQOS is now available in more than 25 countries including the UK but not America (which I'll come to in a minute).
But first I must stress how much I support the concept of heated tobacco. Two years ago I wrote:
The reason I'm interested in heat-not-burn products is because, wearing my Forest hat, anything that offers a safer method of consuming tobacco ought to interest smokers, especially if it mimics the act of smoking and still involves tobacco.
Of course there are enormous hurdles for emerging tobacco products to overcome, including opposition from politicians, public health campaigners and even some vapers whose reluctance to embrace HNB alongside e-cigarettes is rather sad.
Even if the benefits aren't as significant as using e-cigs I welcome the additional choice they could provide. The fact that HNB devices are genuine tobacco products, unlike e-cigarettes, counts in their favour.
Since then research conducted by the Centre for Substance Use Research has confirmed that while a substantial number of committed smokers have tried vaping, e-cigarettes often fall short when it comes to customer satisfaction.
That's why I was rooting for PMI when the company gave evidence last week to a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel in America.
The outcome was mixed - FDA panel gives qualified support to claims for ‘safer’ smoking device - but my guess is that the FDA will grant PMI’s application to sell iQOS in America. In the absence of any further evidence, however, I imagine officials will adopt the precautionary principle and prohibit claims about reduced risk.
So, yes, I applaud the development of products like iQOS, but what saddens me is the way PMI has jumped on the anti-smoking bandwagon with its other initiatives. I understand the strategy but it doesn't make it right. You can advocate harm reduction without undermining and abandoning those who enjoy smoking and don't want to quit.
Anyway I've been aching for an opportunity to respond directly to PMI and an unexpected source – the Daily Star Online – finally gave me the chance when Forest was asked last week to react to comments by a PMI executive reported here:
The END of smoking: Tobacco firm to STOP selling Marlboro and B&H cigarettes in the UK.
Ignore the assertive yet inaccurate headline. (Marlboro is a PMI brand, B&H isn't, and while the company may aspire to stop selling cigarettes, there's no guarantee it will.) The article however is quite informative.
According to Mark MacGregor, PMI’s director of corporate affairs for the UK and Ireland, “2030 feels like a realistic timeframe” to stop selling cigarettes in the UK because Britain could be completely 'smoke-free' by then.
Forest's response, published in full, read:
“We welcome the new generation of harm reduction products but it's delusional to think that everyone will have stopped smoking by 2030.
"Millions of people smoke not because they're addicted but because they enjoy it. That fundamental fact isn't going to change over the next twelve years.
"The key to this is choice. Give consumers a choice of combustible and non-combustible products and as the technology improves an increasing number will choose the less harmful option.
"But if adults choose to smoke in full knowledge of the health risks that decision must be respected. No-one should be forced to quit because of excessive regulations, punitive taxation or prohibition.
"If Philip Morris want to stop selling cigarettes that's up to them but people will still smoke, and if combustible products can't be purchased through legitimate retailers the black market will supply them."
Funnily enough, Mark MacGregor and I go back a long way. We first met over 35 years ago when a mutual friend, Brian Monteith, introduced us.
Brian and Mark were leading members of the Federation of Conservative Students and I edited a student newspaper called Campus.
Later, all three of us worked for a PR company founded by Michael (now Lord) Forsyth, but not at the same time.
Now, decades later, our paths have crossed again. It really is a small world.
Reader Comments (7)
Heated tobacco device might be a misnomer. It should be heated tobacco-like device. According to official PMI documents, IQOS heatsticks are 100% made of reconstituted tobacco, whereas a normal cigarette is about 50% recon. Add to this the fact that a heatstick weighs 250mg compared to a Marlboro cigarette which weighs 500mg and both have the same price. Now one can understand why PMI would like to sell only IQOS....££££.
On a different note...the claim that IQOS is less harmful reminds me of the 'tar wars' of the 70-80s...weren't 1mg tar cigarettes supposed to be less harmful than old style filterless? Now they're all viewed the same.
One last thought...this newly invented chemical concoction&device called IQOS is supposed to be 95% safer than tobacco, which has been smoked by people for the past 10k years. Only for the last 50 years or so 'science' has allegedly discovered that it causes almost all diseases known to man. Doesn't it sound similar to vegan propaganda which demonizes butter and meat while at the same time pushing all sorts of frankensteinfoods (they're already trying to create meat in the lab). Hasn't a couple of generations been mislead by mainstream medicine that butter 'cloggs arteries' while margarine is good?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. PM's IQOS device simply won't touch the cigarette market unless they make it a lot, lot more widely available. One shop in London and one (I think) in Manchester simply isn't going to reach the vast majority of smokers across the country, and I doubt very much whether any of the new vape shops that are springing up will even countenance the idea of selling them. Again, as I've mentioned before, one has to wonder about their true motivations for all this enthusiastic support for a "smokefree" world when their supposedly-wondrous new gadget is simply going unnoticed by all those potential customers!
It is a bit like butchers trying to sell meat to vegetarians but then they are not stupid enough to make a product for those who don't use it like PMI. Smokers like smoking. If PMI ignores that there will be plenty of others looking to attract the custom PMI will lose.
Let's see how many antis buy their new toy.
I realise that tobacco consumers are denied the same consumer rights as others, and because we are not allowed any product information, and all packs look the same, it would be really useful to know all the tobacco products sold by PMI so they can be avoided now.
It would be easier to give a list to those selling cigarettes and tobacco of the brands and types I don't want, than to try and find those that I do want, especially as I am prevented from looking at what is on display.
Do you have a link Simon that might help? I can't seem to find anything other than the new products being sold to please those who won't buy them.
Phillip Morris does not want my custom. I am very happy to oblige starting now.
@Pat Nurse https://www.pmi.com/our-business/about-us/products/how-cigarettes-are-made. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, select country, and then ingredients in a specific brand tab. Then you can see the brands available in the selected country...for instance, in the UK there are 6: Assos, Chesterfield, L&M, Marlboro, Parliament, Merit
Never seen any Assos in the UK Vlad ?
I won't buy tobacco in the UK until I get something back for the punitive taxes I am forced to pay.
Therefore your list is very helpful when buying my annual stock abroad in countries far more tolerant and considerate than this one.