Patrik Hildingson, Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at Swedish Match, stated on November 21st that only five percent of the population in Sweden, both men and women, smoke cigarettes, according to B92.
At the "Rethink: Learning from Sweden" conference, he emphasized that Sweden introduced innovations in the 1970s with loose tobacco placed in pouches—snus.
"We've arrived at snus, a product used under the upper lip, which has become the first and best alternative to cigarettes in America," said Hildingson. He noted that since its introduction, snus has shown a continuous growth trend.
"According to public health statistics, we can see that since the 1980s, due to the rise of snus, there has been a decline in various lung diseases, and Swedish men have the lowest cancer rates in the world," Hildingson said.
Tomaso Di Giovanni, Vice President of International Communications at Philip Morris International(PMI), said that innovations have always been used to address the world's most pressing problems and that the same principle can be applied to tobacco and vapes.
"We created three very simple alternatives that should guide decisions for companies, public health, academia, and NGOs. These are: if you don't smoke, don't start; if you smoke, quit; If you don't quit, change," Di Giovanni said.
He also noted that in 2008, PMI invested $12 billion in developing alternative products, with R&D centers in Switzerland and Singapore, and ranking fifth in European patent filings.
He announced further investments in Serbia to focus more on cigarette alternatives.
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