Jacek Olczak, Chief Executive Officer of Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) said in a speech that governments across the world should accelerate the end of cigarettes, according to a PMI press release.

Drawing upon a new hypothetical model based on World Health Organization data, estimates, and methods, as well as other third party data, Olczak explained that even if smoke-free products were assumed to be only 80 per cent less risky than cigarettes, if people who currently smoke were to switch to them completely, then over their lifetime there’s a potential for a tenfold reduction in smoking-attributable deaths compared with historical tobacco control measures alone, according to the press release. Olczak criticized that smoke-free products were banned in some countries while cigarettes were not and called on governments around the world to follow the examples of countries like Sweden and Japan—as well as the U.K.—and adopt policies that give adult smokers who don’t quit a wide choice of alternatives to continuing smoking so they can make better choices and cigarettes can become a historical artifact.
PMI has been committed to moving away from cigarettes since 2016 and has invested over USD 10.5 billion in developing and commercializing smoke-free products—which today account for nearly 35 per cent of the company’s total net revenues. The company wants to replace cigarettes with less harmful alternatives and ultimately to make cigarettes obsolete. According to the press release, the ability to progress on this mission is being frustrated by a combination of blind opposition from anti-tobacco organizations and governments’ overreliance on the so-called precautionary principle, which some interpret as “better not to do anything until we know everything.”
“The persistence of high smoking rates globally is evidence that the current approach to ending cigarette use is not working quickly enough,” Olczak said. “Our mission is clear: to reduce smoking by replacing cigarettes with less harmful alternatives. Cigarettes belong in museums.”