Good Riddance of the Day: Philip Morris Could Be Phasing Out Cigarettes
Nothing will stop 2016 until pigs fly.
According to Andre Calatzopoulos, chief executive of cigarette and tobacco behemoth Philip Morris, “he would like to work towards the ‘phase-out’ of conventional cigarettes.”
What? Philip Morris not making cigarettes is something akin to a dairy farmer making soy milk or a slaughterhouse making seitan or a poison maker making an antidote. What’s going on here?
The BBC reports:
In his first UK broadcast interview, he has told the Today programme that the company knows its products harm their consumers, and that the only correct response is to "to find and commercialise" ones that are less harmful.
"That is clearly our objective," he said.
The company has announced a new “healthier” cigarette, which boasts 90% less of the 'nasty toxins that come from cigarette smoke.'
The innovation in this new system, called lqos, doesn’t burn cigarettes, it heats them.
It works like this. You buy a pack of “tobacco sticks” and pop them in a heater. You put the stick to your mouth and puff. This causes much less smoke and smell.
But of course, let’s not forget smoking is still incredibly dangerous. Anti-smoking groups aren’t taking their eyes off the prize.
“On current trends, smoking will kill one billion people in the 21st century, most in poor countries,” Deborah Arnott, said, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health. "If Philip Morris really want to see the end of smoking they have to stop promoting smoking to new young smokers around the world."
Pigs, you have 31 days to start flying.