Philip Morris CEO says it will stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years: NPR

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In this 2010 file photo, a pack of Marlboro cigarettes is seen at a Quick Stop store in Miami, Florida. Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olchuk has said the company will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in the UK in the next 10 years. Joe Riddell/Getty Images Hide the caption

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In this 2010 file photo, a pack of Marlboro cigarettes is seen at a Quick Stop store in Miami, Florida. Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olchuk has said the company will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in the UK in the next 10 years.

Joe Riddell / Getty Images

Tobacco giant Philip Morris, chief executive of the tobacco giant, told the Daily Mail Sunday that the company will stop selling cigarettes in the UK in the next 10 years.

The company’s chief executive, Jacek Olczak, has said the popular Marlboro cigarette brand will be taken off shelves in the UK over the next decade.

“It will go away,” he told outlets. “The first choice for consumers is to quit smoking.” “But if they don’t, the second best option is to let them switch to better alternatives.”

This development is just part of Philip Morris International’s reinvention as it abandons traditional tobacco products.

Olczak became the company’s CEO in May and plans to lead the company’s “smoke-free” transformation. He said the new company’s mission is to find and provide “less harmful alternatives to cigarettes” to millions of people who would otherwise still smoke.

In May he said, “Our ambition is that more than half of our net revenue will come from smoke-free products in 2025.”

The UK aims for a smoke-free future too

In this Saturday, March 2, 2013 file photo, a cigarette is burning in an ashtray in Heineville, Ala. Dave Martin / AP Hide Caption

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In this Saturday, March 2, 2013 file photo, a cigarette burns in an ashtray in Heineville, Ala.

Dave Martin/AFP

The company’s efforts are part of a broader societal change in attitudes towards smoking, particularly in the UK. The government recently announced its goal of making England smoke-free by 2030. The UK will be considered “smoke-free” when the country’s smoking rates are below 5%.

Smoking cessation over the past several years is associated with the severe health problems caused by tobacco smoking, which is highly addictive worldwide.

The World Health Organization says that “the tobacco epidemic is one of the greatest public health threats the world has ever faced”. It kills more than eight million people a year – seven million of these deaths are directly related to tobacco use. More than a million additional deaths are caused by exposure of non-smokers to second-hand smoke.

Citing the country’s chief medical officer, a recent British government report said smoking will kill more people in the UK than COVID-19, both this year and in 2020.

“Recent analysis shows that it kills up to two-thirds of long-term users,” the report said.

Approximately 14% of the UK adult population smoke. Based on current trends, the most deprived communities will not be smoke-free until 2045, according to the report.

Scotland’s ambition is to achieve this smoke-free goal by 2034, with no dates set for Wales or Northern Ireland.

Philip Morris bets on alternatives to cigarettes

In this April 16, 2019 file photo, a woman exhales while smoking an e-cigarette from a Juul pen in Vancouver, Washington. Philip Morris manufactures its own brand of electronic cigarettes. The company does not manufacture ballpoint pens. Craig Mitchelldyer/AP Hide Caption

Toggle caption Craig Mitchelldyer / AP

In this April 16, 2019 file photo, a woman exhales while smoking an e-cigarette from a Juul pen in Vancouver, Washington. Philip Morris manufactures its own brand of electronic cigarettes. The company does not manufacture ballpoint pens.

Craig Michelder/AFP

Philip Morris International isn’t abandoning products geared toward smokers entirely, despite its pledge to do so.

The company said it is focusing more on developing tobacco heating systems, such as e-cigarettes that still “produce tobacco vapor containing nicotine.”

The cigarette maker says on its website that “smoke-free products” are not “risk free” but are “a much better option than smoking cigarettes.”

Philip Morris recently announced that it would acquire the Vectura Group, a British pharmaceutical company that makes inhalers, and Denmark-based Fertin Pharma, a maker of nicotine gum. The Vectura purchase drew criticism from people who found a problem with a tobacco company, which while still making money from cigarettes, is positioning itself as an anti-smoking company.

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