Philip Morris launches new, less harmful cigarette in the UK

Philip Morris International (PMI) had launched a new, potentially less harmful cigarette in the UK which, it said, could mean halting sales of its conventional products.

The IQOS product, as it is called, heated tobacco rather than burning it. According to the tobacco giant, this meant smokers got the same nicotine hit but 90 per cent less of the harmful cigarette smoke.

It said, in trials that were externally verified it was found that the new cigarette had the same impact as quitting smoking.

The firm was not pushing that finding, and said that the new product was likely to be less harmful.

Philip Morris was created when America's Altria spun off its non-US interests eight years ago.

The company had spent $3 billion on creating the substitute cigarette.

Andre Calantzopoulos, PMI's chief executive, said he would like to work with governments towards "phase-out" of conventional cigarettes.

In his first UK broadcast interview, he told the 'Today' programme, that the company knew its products harmed their consumers, and that the only correct response was to "to find and commercialise" ones that are less harmful.

"That is clearly our objective," he said.

It was not the first time cigarette makers had experimented with heating rather than burning tobacco to do less damage to consumers.

The company's IQOS smokeless cigarette was already on sale in over a dozen markets including Japan, Switzerland and Italy. 

"I believe there will come a moment in time where I would say we have sufficient adoption of these alternative products ... to start envisaging, together with governments, a phase-out period for cigarettes," Andre Calantzopoulos said in an interview on BBC Radio 4.

"I hope this time will come soon," he added.