Cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products are still the main products for tobacco companies.
In 2021, cigarettes and combustible tobacco were still the predominant product, making up around 95% of retail sales volume across the 15 largest tobacco companies, according to the second edition of the Tobacco Transformation Index.
The index, a Foundation for a Smoke-Free World initiative, ranks the world’s 15 largest tobacco companies on their efforts to reduce the harm of their products.
Swedish Match ranked first in the 2022 Index, with Philip Morris International, Altria, and British American Tobacco in second, third, and fourth places, respectively.
Index findings revealed that tobacco companies are failing to invest in harm reduction in low- and middle-income countries, with the vast majority of sales for their reduced risk products (RRPs) concentrated in markets with the highest disposable income. Notably, RRPs are banned in a number of countries around the world.
Findings from a new survey of American attitudes to e-cigarettes, HTP, and snus conducted from 28 August to 1 September 2022 included in the Democracy Institute’s Global Progress Report on Tobacco Harm Reduction showed that most Americans are anti-prohibitionist on RRPs. When asked whether RRPs should be legal, 59% said yes; only 35% said no.
When asked if vaping is safer than smoking cigarettes, 47% answered no. When asked if heated tobacco products are safer than smoking cigarettes, 54% answered no; only 34% said yes.
Americans are evenly divided (45% yes to 43% no) on whether vaping products should be regulated like tobacco products and on whether vaping products should be taxed the same as tobacco products (43% yes to 42% no).