Shift, not quit

NEUCHATEL, Switzerland – From the time it was first made available commercially in 2014, Philip Morris International’s heated tobacco and electronic cigarette IQOS has gone a long way.

As of the first quarter of 2023, there were already 25.8 million IQOS users worldwide, with 72 percent using the product exclusively, having said goodbye totally to traditional cigarettes.

IQOS tobacco heating systems heat specially designed tobacco units without combustion, fire, ash or smoke. And since there is no burning, the levels of harmful chemicals are significantly reduced compared to traditional cigarette smoking.

Last year, smoke-free products already account for 32.1 percent of PMI’s net revenue. And the company is confident it will reach its target of more than 50 percent by 2025.

In a briefing at PMI’s research and development facilities here, company officials revealed that 2022 and 2023 marked two consecutive years of volume growth as well as an organic net revenue increase of more than seven percent.

PMI director for integrated consumer communications Bryson Thornton said there are more than one billion smokers in the world who should be encouraged to switch to safer products.

There are currently four categories of products which have been found to deliver nicotine in a far safer manner. These are heated tobaccos which use real tobacco, electronic cigarettes which do not use tobacco but deliver nicotine derived from tobacco, snus which are tobacco pouches for oral use and use real tobacco, and nicotine patches which do not use tobacco but contain nicotine also for oral use.

A September 2022 study of nicotine vaping in England by the UK Office for Health Improvement and Disparities revealed that vaping is 95 percent less harmful than smoking.

Leading public and health regulatory institutions have concluded that it is the toxin and carcinogen in tobacco smoke, not nicotine, that causes illness and death.

PMI senior manager for global scientific engagement Carrie Wade, in the same briefing, disclosed that the company has the best in class in research and development, with over 1,500 employees that include scientists and engineers, having invested around $10.7 billion for the development of safer alternatives to traditional cigarettes.

Independent studies have shown that there has been a more than 95 percent reduction in the levels of chemicals found in heated tobacco products compared to traditional tobacco cigarettes that use burning to release the nicotine. The most greatly reduced by IQOS would be in the levels of carbon monoxide.

There has been an increasing adoption of differentiated regulation depending on the level of harm that the product produces. In the Philippines, in July of last year, a law was passed establishing risk-proportionate regulation of non-combustible alternatives to cigarettes.

In 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the marketing of IQOS products as modified risk tobacco products with reduced risk or reduced exposure information.

Also that year in New Zealand, there was an amended tobacco law that recognizes the difference between heated tobacco products and cigarettes and regulates them differently.

Meanwhile, in 2018 in the UK, the Tobacco Control Plan for England emphasized the role that e-cigarettes and novel tobacco products could play in reducing the harm caused by smoking.

At the ongoing Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) 2023 in Warsaw, Department of Energy Undersecretary Sharon Garin, who co-authored the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Act of 2022 when she was a member of Congress, pointed out that in drafting the legislation, their objective was firstly for minors not to consume and secondly, for current smokers to adopt a less harmful habit.

Meanwhile, cardiologist Dr. Rafael Castillo said after conducting studies themselves, they were convinced that although more data were needed, the use of vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products was definitely less harmful than smoking combustible cigarettes and could be considered to be a pragmatic middle ground to which current adult cigarette smokers should be brought.

For his part, Dr. Lorenzo Mata, who heads Quit For Good, a non-profit organization promoting harm reduction to mitigate the damage caused by cigarettes, noted that the new law is an acknowledgment by the Philippine government that there is a need for the latter to come up with an alternative to smoking that is less harmful to smokers, and that Congress is supporting science-based public health policy.

Filipinos give the world the best

Stories of overseas Filipinos were shown in some of the most famous spots in the US last June 12 and 13 in time for the Philippines’ celebration of Independence Day.

The videos were part of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Creative Communications (OPACC)’s new country branding campaign ‘We Give the World Our Best – The Philippines, featuring the true stories of overseas Filipinos giving their best, wherever they are in the world.

Videos featuring Charmaine “Charm” Espinoza, a Filipina caregiver in the UK, and Dan Johnson “DJ” Noblesa, a Filipino barista in Italy, were seen on digital billboards on Times Square in New York, and in Inglewood, Los Angeles, California during those dates.

Charm and DJ’s videos had also earlier appeared in New York Times Square and Dubai’s La Mer City Walk, two of the most prominent and modern cities in the world.

Nurse May Parsons, meanwhile, was the face of the bus ad shown in London on the day of King Charles III’s coronation. May was the first nurse to have administered the COVID-19 vaccine in the UK, which was very much recognized by the UK government.

According to OPACC, the London bus ad had been rolled out during the momentous occasion to draw in the huge crowds, and communicate the inspiring message that Filipinos give their best wherever they are and in whatever they do.

OPACC Secretary Paul Soriano explained that at its core, the project intends to let the whole world know how good, compassionate and competent Filipinos are and that Filipinos bring their best through daily actions that touch lives all over the world.

The new videos demonstrate how OFWs portray that they are not mere persons in the country that host them, but true ambassadors of the country they call home.

The videos are now getting positive raves from netizens.

These success stories can also be viewed in the We Give the World our Best YouTube channel.

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