You asked, we answered

To be clear: No tobacco or nicotine-containing products are safe. The best option is always to quit tobacco and nicotine use altogether.

Philip Morris International’s smoke-free products are not risk-free—and they contain nicotine, which is addictive. However, our smoke-free products (e.g., heated tobacco, vapes, nicotine pouches, and snus) are a much better choice than continued smoking.

We conduct robust scientific research to assess our smoke-free products’ reduced risk potential. Independent reviews and regulatory assessments in many countries confirm important elements of our findings. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the marketing of some versions of our IQOS heated tobacco product, General snus, and ZYN nicotine pouches under the premarket tobacco application pathway, which determined that authorizing these products for the U.S. market was “appropriate for the protection of the public health.” In 2020, the FDA authorized a version of IQOS to be marketed with reduced exposure information, finding it to be appropriate to promote public health—the only electronic nicotine device to receive such designation and this authorization was renewed in 2026. Additionally, in 2024 the FDA authorized a renewal of a risk modification order for eight General snus products. The agency concluded that “these modified risk products, as actually used by consumers, will significantly reduce harm and the risk of tobacco-related disease to individual tobacco users and benefit the health of the population as a whole.”

Preventing underage use of our products is embedded in our marketing practices, which apply to all our products worldwide and follow four core principles: 

1. We market and sell our products to legal-age adults who smoke or use other nicotine products.  

2. We warn consumers about the health effects of our products.  

3. We market truthfully and transparently.  

4. We respect the law. 

Philip Morris International’s smoke-free alternatives to cigarettes (e.g., heated tobacco, vapes, nicotine pouches, and snus) contain nicotine, which is addictive and not risk-free. However, nicotine is not classified as carcinogenic and is not the primary cause of smoking-related diseases.

For smoke-free products to be an acceptable alternative to smoking, they need to provide nicotine, because this is one of the reasons adults smoke, alongside other factors including sensory experience, ritual, and social interactions.

Whilst nicotine is addictive, millions of smokers succeed in quitting cigarettes and nicotine use altogether each year, which is always the best choice for their health.

“Tobacco harm reduction” aims to reduce the harm caused by smoking tobacco by encouraging adult smokers who do not quit cigarettes and nicotine completely to switch to science-backed, smoke-free alternatives that produce significantly lower levels of harmful chemicals than combusted cigarettes, thereby having the potential to benefit individual and public health.

At Philip Morris International, we support tobacco harm reduction and advocate for policies that encourage adult smokers who would otherwise smoke to switch to scientifically substantiated smoke-free alternatives. Adult smokers should be able to choose better alternatives to cigarettes, such as heated tobacco, vapes, nicotine pouches, and snus. We consistently call for evidence-based regulation and open dialogue with public health authorities to incorporate the harm-reduction approach into tobacco control measures for the benefit of public health.

As our Group CEO PMI, Jacek Olczak, has said: “Some countries that have prohibited smoke-free products are seeing higher smoking rates persist, while many of those whose policies encourage smokers to make better choices are advancing away from cigarettes more quickly.”

Illicit trade is a serious and growing threat to society. It includes the manufacturing and selling of fake and counterfeit cigarettes, smuggling, and “diversion” of genuine products into unintended markets. PMI actively combats illicit trade and counterfeiting by collaborating with governments, law-enforcement agencies, and other stakeholders, and leveraging technology and innovation. From authentication and security technologies tracking and tracing our products across the supply chain to the use of machine learning to identify and prevent illegal online sales, technology is helping us detect and address illicit trade. 

But to have the biggest impact on deterring illicit tobacco flows and protecting consumers and our products from smugglers and counterfeiters, these internal efforts need to be coupled with strong cross-sectoral collaboration and partnerships. 

Philip Morris International is committed to reducing its environmental impact by addressing issues such as post-consumer waste from its products. We have sustainability initiatives to help minimize single-use plastics, improve recyclability, and deploy take-back and recycling programs for smoke-free devices and consumables (e.g., heated tobacco sticks). Additionally, Philip Morris International supports anti-littering campaigns and collaborates with stakeholders to advance sustainable practices.

At Philip Morris International, our vision is to completely replace cigarettes as soon as possible with smoke-free alternatives, and we are making rapid progress toward this goal. At the core of that vision is offering legal-age consumers better alternatives to continued smoking, such as heated tobacco products, vapes, and nicotine pouches. As of Q1 2026, our smoke-free business made up 43 percent of our total global net revenues, and we aspire to raise that figure to over two-thirds by 2030. Our Statement of Purpose is clear: We believe that with the right regulatory encouragement and support from civil society, cigarette sales can end within 10 to 15 years in many countries.

“Smoke-free products” is the term used to describe alternatives to cigarettes that do not involve burning tobacco. Examples of smoke-free products include heated tobacco products, vapes, nicotine pouches, and snus. If scientifically substantiated, these alternative tobacco and nicotine products can represent a much better choice than continued smoking, because they have the potential to significantly reduce the levels of harmful chemicals generated.

This is because burning tobacco in cigarettes creates smoke containing over 6,000 chemicals—about 100 of which are known to cause or potentially cause serious diseases—making combustion the main reason smoking is so harmful. 

Philip Morris International’s smoke-free products include heated tobacco products (like IQOS), e-vapor products, also known as vapes (like VEEV), as well as nicotine pouches (ZYN) and snus (General).  

At Philip Morris International, we have publicly declared our ambition to stop selling cigarettes as soon as possible by encouraging adult smokers that don’t quit cigarettes and nicotine altogether—which is always the best choice—to switch completely to scientifically substantiated smoke-free products, such as heated tobacco, vapes, nicotine pouches, or snus.

Some people have told us: “Just stop selling cigarettes now!” But, if we stopped selling cigarettes overnight, it would not solve the problem of smoking, because the demand would remain. Adults who smoke would either switch to other brands or turn to the black market, where cigarettes are unregulated and untaxed. The societal change we’re working toward requires regulatory support, market readiness, and adult consumer acceptance, and that’s why we consistently call for progressive policies that embrace tobacco harm reduction and enable access to better alternatives to continued smoking.

As of December 31, 2025, we estimate there are over 43 million legal-age consumers of our smoke-free products (including heated tobacco, vapes, nicotine pouches, and snus).

Find out more about our progress.