TOBACCO giant Philip Morris International is committed to a “smoke-free future” and is continuing to use technology to develop cigarette alternatives, the company has said.
Speaking ahead of No Smoking Day in the UK today, the firm has revealed it was among the top 100 patent filers in Europe last year for technology surrounding new products and says it plans to increase the alternatives to cigarettes it offers.
PMI launched its first product of this kind last year. IQOS is a small device that heats tobacco rather than burning it, providing similar levels of nicotine but with 90 per cent less of the harmful toxins found in cigarette smoke.
READ MORE: Shops sold knives to children as 13 in undercover investigation
The company says it has more than 1,800 granted patents and almost 4,000 pending applications for technology surrounding smoke-free devices and products.
Peter Nixon, the firm’s UK managing director, said: “We are committed to working towards a smoke-free future, which is why we are developing a portfolio of products with the potential to reduce the risk from smoking.
“Fully converting adult smokers to non-combustible products will benefit consumers and society and we can see a future where we no longer sell cigarettes.”
Since 2008, Philip Morris claims it has spent more than £2.4 billion on research into smoke-free technology.
READ MORE: Shops sold knives to children as 13 in undercover investigation
Michele Cattoni, the firm’s head of technology and operations for smoke-free products, said: “We are inventing new ways to deliver a satisfying experience to smokers without burning tobacco. Our patents are tangible evidence of our progress towards a smoke-free future, where cigarettes will be replaced by non-combustible products.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article