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October 7, 2019
Philip Morris International Celebrates the First Smoke-Free Culture Certified Island in the World
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The island received the Smoke-Free Culture certification from TUV Austria, a leading independent certification organization, recognizing their commitment to reduce cigarette smoking by implementing and continuously improving a set of actions that encourage quitting, which remains the best option for smokers’ health, or switching to better alternatives if they do not quit.
TUV Austria developed the independent certification protocol in 2018. It conducts audits to verify whether an organization fulfils the requirements defined by the protocol and, when the independent audit is successful, awards the organization with the certification; ensuring an objective, impartial and fully documented assessment. The certification is available for a variety of organizations including events, corporations and locations, for example cities, towns, islands and other destinations.
“We are proud to support this initiative and congratulate Astypalea on their efforts. We hope that other destinations around the world will follow their example by embracing a smoke-free culture,” said
The island embraced the smoke-free culture, including by adding it to their visual identity and placing information boards at the airport, port, beaches and the historic windmills area to inform locals and visitors. In addition to ensuring that anti-smoking law is respected, they offer information and support to adult smokers about quitting smoking. For those adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke they provide information about better alternatives.
“The best thing smokers can do is to quit tobacco and nicotine products entirely. However, many of them do not. Those adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke should have information about better alternatives to continued smoking,” added
Burning is what generates the vast majority of the harmful chemicals found in smoke and associated with smoking-related diseases. Smoke-free products are not risk-free and contain nicotine, which is addictive, but they generate significantly lower levels of harmful chemicals than cigarettes and, when manufactured according to appropriate quality and safety standards, are a better choice for adult smokers than continued smoking.
With the ambition to accelerate the achievement of a smoke-free future,
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For further information and assets:
Bryson W. Thornton
+41 (0) 58 242 4500
Bryson.Thornton@pmi.com
Anna Bodi
+41 (0) 58 242 4500
Anna.Bodi@pmi.com