Vaping
Philip Morris puts heat on to stub out cigarettes
Tobacco company’s researchers devise alternatives amid clamour for healthier new generation of smokes
You want a trip to Philip Morris International to feel like a visit to Marlboro Country. But the company’s Swiss research centre, also known as the Cube, just won’t play along. Perched above crystalline Lake Neuchatel, southwest of Zurich, the glass hexahedron holds secrets to a future when, Philip Morris says, the world will be blissfully smoke free. That is right: Philip Morris, of all companies, is telling smokers to quit. Beyond the sun-dappled reflecting pool flanking the building, scientists in lab coats are searching for Big Tobacco’s magic bullet: cigarette substitutes that will sell — but won’t kill. The push gained urgency last week with news that British American Tobacco, was offering $47bn to buy out Reynolds American, a move that would topple Philip Morris as the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco firm. The stakes could scarcely be higher. Tobacco claims more than 6-million lives every year. With smoking on the decline around the world, tobacco giants are racing to...
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