One of the world’s largest tobacco companies is pushing to undermine the efforts of the World Health Organization, which plans to crack down on vapes and smoke-free alternative products.
Philip Morris International (PMI), the owner of brands such as Marlboro and IQOS, has begun building a portfolio of “smoke-free” offerings, saying it can offer a better way for customers to use nicotine.
However, the WHO is planning strategies to curb the demand and supply of tobacco products, including new regulations and pricing measures.
Ahead of a meeting of the WHO’s framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC) next month, PMI’s senior vice president of external affairs, Gregoire Verdeaux, told staff to find “any connection, any lead, whether political or technical” in a leaked email.
The email, seen by the Guardian, was sent ahead of a closed-door meeting involving delegates from 182 countries, where PMI hopes to represent the agenda of consumers and companies.
PMI confirmed to Fortune the email had been sent.
Phasing out cigarettes
The company, which has its operations based in Lausanne, Switzerland, has also committed to phtasing cigarettes out in place of smoke-free alternatives, as volumes of cigarette sales have steadily declined over the past decade.
The tobacco giant argued that WHO’s efforts could make it harder for the company—and the customers it serves—to make a switch away from cigarettes to adopt smoke-free products.
“I am a former WHO director and have great respect and expectations vis-à-vis the institution,” Verdeaux said in an emailed statement to Fortune. “But like many other present, and former public health professionals, I think it’s a pity the WHO ignores innovative smoke-free, nicotine alternatives that have already helped millions of adults to stop smoking.”
He continued: “Companies do innovation best. What I say publicly and what I say to our employees is exactly the same: I am proud to make the case to governments and media that innovation drives down smoking rates faster and for that reason should be supported and regulated.”
The FCTC’s next meeting in Panama is set to discuss further details regarding regulations of smoke-free products, The Guardian reports.
“The WHO’s tobacco treaty is no longer fit for purpose,” a PMI spokesperson told Fortune, adding that other experts have echoed the company’s concerns about banning smoke-free goods or treating them equally to cigarettes. “We should instead be asking why the WHO is denying smokers access to information about better alternatives.”
Tobacco companies aren’t part of the WHO conference, which PMI alleges is equivalent to silencing key stakeholders.
The health body has maintained that e-cigarettes and related products are “harmful” and have lured younger users into using nicotine-based products because of their different flavors.
WHO holds that the additives and flavors in vapes could hurt users as well as those around them, while raising the risk of abuse among children.
Studies have found that vaping, although not totally safe, leads to fewer harmful effects compared to cigarette smoking.
Representatives at the WHO didn’t immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
The fall of the cigarette
With growing awareness of the consequences of cigarette use and the rise of alternatives like vapes, the number of cigarette smokers has been declining.
Globally, the number of adults smoking has dropped among men by 27% and women by 38%.
Those numbers also reflect in PMI’s cigarette shipments—between 2015 and 2021 alone volumes dropped 25%, the company noted, and continue to decline further.
Despite the drop, cigarettes still are a leading cause of death worldwide, according to BMJ, a medical journal run by the British Medical Association.
Even though e-cigarettes have fewer toxic chemicals compared to traditional cigarettes, consumers aren’t entirely safe using products like vapes.
Governments have raised the alarm over the rapid rise in popularity of vaping among young people and adults.
This has led many countries around the world to ban either vaping without prescriptions or flavored e-cigarette use, such as in Australia and Germany, respectively. The U.K. is also considering a ban on disposable vapes.
