The report, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies 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. Hundreds of millions of men and women who don’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 percent of respondents think smokers should have access to less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.
PMI’s
alternatives alone have already helped 8 million people abandon cigarettes
entirely.
There is no
question that the best choice is never to start using cigarettes or
nicotine-containing products or if someone has, they should quit cigarette and
nicotine altogether. By encouraging governments to double down on efforts to
help men and women who smoke quit, the WHO takes an admirable stance. But the
reality is that in any given year, about 9 out of 10 men and women who are
already smoking will continue; in turn, their risk of smoking-related disease
will continue to increase.
“The WHO is
failing the one billion men and women around the world that continue to smoke
by continuing to ignore the science behind better alternatives to cigarettes,”
said Dr. Moira Gilchrist, Vice President of Strategic and Scientific
Communications, Philip Morris International. “There is no question that
scientifically-substantiated smoke-free alternatives are better than
cigarettes. The WHO is perfectly situated to encourage independent research and
provide science-based recommendations to smokers. Instead they seem to be
closing down dialogue on promising alternatives to continued smoking, choosing
instead to focus solely on pharmaceutical industry products.”
In 1997, the UN Focal
Point on Tobacco or Health recommended that “in order to assist smokers who are
so heavily dependent that they cannot possibly stop smoking, every effort
should be made to reduce the toxicity of existing tobacco products.” The same report also recommends that, “the
WHO is requested to consider the above recommendations in future
policy-development activities, including the drafting of a framework convention
on tobacco control.”
PMI heeded the
call for reduced toxicity products and for more than 20 years has been working
on developing and scientifically assessing less harmful alternatives to
cigarettes that do not create smoke, because they do not combust. PMI’s
scientific assessment program is inspired by the well-recognized practices of
the pharmaceutical industry and in line with the draft guidance of the U.S. FDA
for Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) Applications. PMI’s scientific studies
resulted in more than 340 references in peer-reviewed articles in scientific
journals and book chapters. All its clinical studies are registered on the
public website www.ClinicalTrials.gov.
PMI encourages
rigorous assessment of scientific research which is made transparently
available for just that purpose. To date, there have been 73 independent
studies and scientific reviews from universities and government research
institutes in countries like Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. In general,
the conclusions from these studies and reviews are in line with PMI’s own data.
Dr Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, Director–General of the WHO’s outlines in his own vision statement
that, “under my leadership an enhanced and independent WHO will take a
science-led and innovation-based approach that is results-oriented and
responsive, maximizes inclusive partnerships, and ensures collective priority
setting with all stakeholders.”
One has to ask,
why does the WHO not apply these same principles to tobacco control?
“We remain
committed to having an open and transparent dialogue based on science,” said
Dr. Gilchrist. “We cannot change the past but we can change the future for the
one billion people around the world that continue to smoke.”
PMI’s smoke-free
strategy complements efforts by the WHO to tackle smoking. Its aspiration is
that, by 2025, at least 40 million people who would otherwise have smoked
cigarettes will have switched to our smoke-free products (approximately 8
million people to date globally), reducing the number of smokers of PMI
cigarette brands by a total 55 million by 2025. PMI’s aspiration is to reduce
smoking almost four times faster than the target set by WHO.
“We are shifting
our business towards science-based better alternatives. We look forward to
working with decision-makers in governments around the world and organizations
such as the WHO to accelerate this transformation,” said Dr. Gilchrist.
“Despite the WHO report we will remain steadfast in our commitment to unsmoke
the world.”
The original
content is published in PMI’s website:
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