Home > Plasmid: Science and bio-tech research blog > Archives > 2008 > January > 29 > Entry
Science and Your Smokes
It seems like just yesterday Philip Morris was insisting that cigarettes were not nicotine delivery devices. God forbid they be regulated as a drug.
How times change. For the past year the tobacco giant has supported FDA regulation. A Senate committee has passed one version; a house companion slumbers amid Bush administration opposition.
Philip Morris’ international arm, meanwhile, has publicly admitted the company can control how much addictive nicotine and tar its cigarettes actually deliver. Yes, Virginia Slim, there’s science behind them coffin nails.
Enter stage left the CEO of Philip Morris International, Andre Calantzopoulos, brazenly puffing away on Philip Morris’ newest invention: Marlboro Intense, as described in Tuesday’s (1/29) Wall Street Journal.
Journal reporter Vanessa O’Connell says Marlboro Intense is a short, extra-potent cigarette designed for busy people. In other countries.
“The idea behind Intense is to appeal to customers who, due to indoor smoking bans, want to dash outside for a quick nicotine hit but don’t always finish a full-size cigarette,” O’Connell writes.
Of course, addicts will have to fly to Turkey to get their Intense fix for the moment. Rollouts are planned for 50 some other markets.
But it won’t be sold in the United States.
It’s part of a raft of new nicotine delivery devices that Philip Morris will roll out once its separation from parent company Altria is complete, possibly Wednesday.
According to WSJ’s O’Connell: “The move would free the tobacco giant’s international operations of legal and public-relations headaches in the U.S. that have hindered its growth. The separate entity, for example, would be exempt from U.S. tobacco regulations and out of reach of American litigators. Importantly its practices would no longer be constrained by American public opinion, paving the way for broad product experimentation.”
Why is Philip Morris so focused on emerging markets?
The WSJ suggests that once unfettered from U.S. regulation, its scientists can experiment more freely. Consider also that the United States is a shrinking market for Philip Morris. The percent of adults who smoke has fallen from 42 percent to about 20 percent since 1965, according to the American Cancer Society.
Still, that’s about 45 million people in this country.
For what it’s worth, you smokers, about 12 million premature U.S. deaths can be blamed on that habit since 1964, the ACS says.
From the society’s “Cancer Facts and Figures 2007”
“Smoking accounts for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of lung cancer deaths.”
“Smoking is associated with increased risk of at least 15 types of cancer: nasopharynx, nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, lip, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, lung, esophagus, pancreas, uterine cervix, kidney, bladder, stomach and acute myeloid leukemia.”
And this just in, from the WSJ: “Recent Marlboro launches include Marlboro Mix 9, a high-nicotine, high-tar cigarette introduced in Indonesia last July. PMI is poised to export the clove-infused Mix 9 to other Southeast Asian markets as soon as this year.”
Isn’t global trade grand? Read the entire WSJ story here.
And share your thoughts below. Did you try to quit this year? How’s it going?
Comments
By jmvfrva
January 31, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this
Marlboro Intense - sounds great! Wish they would sell them in the U.S.
Smoking is cool!