An electronic tobacco company chief has predicted that 40 million traditional cigarette smokers worldwide will drop the habit and take to electronic tobacco by 2025.
Mr. Bahman Safakish, Managing Director of Philip Morris International (PMI) Sub-Saharan Africa, makers of I Quit Original Smoking (IQOS) electronic tobacco made this prediction on Thursday.
His words, “our ambition is that 30% of our volumes be represented by smoke-free products by 2025, which is equivalent to approximately 40 million smokers that adopt them.”
He added that PMI was “making tremendous progress toward our ambitions of a smoke-free future. IQOS is already commercialized in 53 markets, and we have already encouraged over 10 million smokers to switch to IQOS and abandon cigarettes”.
Safakish said “four more million are currently adopting the product and we expect them to abandon cigarettes soon.”
He assured of his company’s resolve to ensuring that smoke-free products which are safer, replace the current cigarettes as soon as possible.
Bahman Safakish called on government to support the tobacco innovation, by defining regulations that encourage smokers to switch and smokers ultimately will have to decide to quit cigarettes and, or switch to less harmful products.
The I Quit Original Smoking (IQOS) electronic tobacco is a heated system that produces vapour, instead of harmful smoke.
