American smokers deserve options—not abandonment
THE END OF SMOKING BEGINS WITH BETTER CHOICES.
I’ve dedicated my entire career to improving public health for a simple reason: I lost my beloved grandparents to cancer and heart disease—both preventable illnesses that can be caused by smoking.
I worked as a public health scientist for over 20 years at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including five and a half years as the top scientist at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. My goal over the past decade has been to maximize moving adult smokers away from combustible cigarettes while minimizing underage use of tobacco products.
According to public health data, cigarettes are still the #1 cause of preventable death in the U.S., yet 28 million Americans continue to smoke.* PMI’s vision is to deliver a smoke-free future, and I’m here to help make that vision a reality.
However, PMI cannot achieve this public health goal alone.
Here are three things we know will accelerate the end of cigarettes in America:
People might be shocked that a public health scientist would work for a tobacco manufacturer. But if you want people to stop smoking cigarettes, tobacco companies must put all their focus on developing innovative smoke-free alternatives to replace them. That’s why I joined Philip Morris International (PMI)—because that is their long-term goal, one that I fully support.
“ADULT SMOKERS DESERVE
THE FACTS ABOUT
FDA-AUTHORIZED
SMOKE-FREE ALTERNATIVES.”
“TODAY, MORE THAN 36 PERCENT
OF OUR TOTAL GLOBAL NET
REVENUE COMES FROM
SMOKE-FREE PRODUCTS.”
PMI is the only major tobacco manufacturer committed to ending its sale of cigarettes. Today, more than 36 percent of our total global net revenue comes from smoke-free products, with a goal to raise that to more than two-thirds by 2030.
I hope we can reframe our thinking and collectively agree:
If you don’t smoke, don’t start.
If you smoke, quit.
If you don’t quit, change.
Together we can help end smoking.