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Interviewer asks:

There's a lot of confusion around smoke-free products.

What are they?

Are they really less harmful than cigarettes? 

And why are governments banning them completely? 

There's a lot to unpack, but let's begin with what a smoke-free product is.

Nevena Crljenko, Vice President, Scientific Engagement, Philip Morris International, replies:

Smoke-free products are very different products than cigarettes are. 

The most known tobacco product in the world. 

Cigarettes are lit and burned. And the smoker inhales the smoke. 

Smoke contains thousands of chemicals, many of which are harmful.

Your body is exposed to them and over time it develops into the disease. 

So the first principle we developed was let's eliminate the burning process. 

We can eliminate the burning process by a couple of things.

We can control the temperature in terms of how we heat tobacco but not burn it.

That's heated tobacco products.

We can heat the liquid which contains nicotine.

This is e-vapor product (e-cigarettes).

Or we can create oral products such as nicotine pouches, which basically are not warmed at all.

But the key component, irrespective of how different these products are, is that they do not contain the burning,

which is the main source of smoking-related diseases.