WORLD
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a report, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, on global tobacco use which urges governments to step up efforts to help smokers quit. However, this report fails to acknowledge the robust science and innovation behind alternatives to smoking cigarettes.
WHO misses a critical scientific point: it is the burning of tobacco that produces the vast majority of the harmful chemicals that cause smoking-related diseases, not tobacco itself. People who can’t quit stand to gain the most from less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. In fact, a global survey of 31,000 people in 31 countries found that 88% of respondents think smokers should have access to less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. Philip Morris International (PMI) says its alternatives alone have already helped eight million people abandon cigarettes entirely.
“WHO is failing the one billion people around the world that continue to smoke by continuing to ignore the science behind better alternatives to cigarettes,” said Dr. Moira Gilchrist, PMI’s vice president of strategic and scientific communications. “There is no question that scientifically substantiated smoke-free alternatives are better than cigarettes. Our smoke-free strategy complements efforts by WHO. Our aspiration is that, by 2025, at least 40 million people who would otherwise have smoked cigarettes will have switched to our smoke-free products. Our aspiration is to reduce smoking almost four times faster than the target set by WHO.”
To date, there have been 73 independent studies and scientific reviews from universities and government research institutes in countries like Germany, Japan, and the UK. In general, the conclusions from these studies and reviews support the use of less harmful alternatives to cigarettes that do not create smoke, because they do not combust.