Open Science, June 2023

      How switching to smoke-free products has the potential to benefit current adult smokers: a focus on COPD

      At this Open Science event, our speakers explained the results of our population health impact modeling, the effects in Sweden that correlate with the introduction of oral products, and more.

      COPD and population health

      Cigarette smoking leads to a number of smoking-related diseases over time, one of which is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, and smoking is one of the most common factors in COPD development. As of today, this disease is neither curable nor reversible. For people who do smoke, quitting tobacco and nicotine altogether is the best way to minimize their chances of developing any smoking-related disease, including COPD.

      COPD is a serious disease, but even knowing this, many smokers do not quit. 

      The potential role of smoke-free products in harm reduction

      Smoke-free products provide nicotine in different ways, but the one thing they have in common is that they don’t burn tobacco in order to do it. Heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes provide an experience closest to cigarettes while delivering lower levels of harmful chemicals. Oral nicotine and tobacco products also provide nicotine, doing so without any inhalation to the lungs. All of these products generally contain nicotine, and they’re not risk free, but they can be better choices for adults than continuing to smoke cigarettes.

      EVENT DETAILS

      Live from the Cube

      This Open Science event was held at the Cube, our R&D center in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

       

      Our speakers discussed several topics, ranging from population health impact modeling to seeing the effects in Sweden that correlate with the introduction of oral products. Together, these areas of research illustrate the opportunity for smoke-free products to complement traditional tobacco control measures and drive accelerated declines in smoking.

      OPEN SCIENCE SPEAKERS

      Discussion was moderated by Sukhi Hayer, former journalist and media expert.

      Learn More

      Three key takeaways from the discussion

      In this Open Science event, our speakers covered the following points:

      • PMI’s modeling results show that, together, tobacco control and smoke-free products can make the biggest impact on smoking-caused COPD mortality.
      • In Sweden, COPD rates among Swedish men have been significantly reduced after the use of snus overtook cigarettes among men.
      • Some of the first independent studies on smoke-free product use among COPD patients are showing promising results.
      See more from our Open Science events

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      Reduced Risk Products ("RRPs”) is the term we use to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to these products versus continuing smoking. PMI has a range of RRPs in various stages of development, scientific assessment and commercialization. All of our RRPs are smoke-free products that deliver nicotine with far lower quantities of harmful and potentially harmful constituents than found in cigarette smoke.