THREAD: One of the world’s biggest tobacco companies @InsidePMI claims it wants to end smoking and switch people to “reduced risk” products. It has hired expensive PR, advertising and lobbying firms to help it “Unsmoke The World” #SmokeScreen #Dispatches 
@InsidePMI Tonight we show the “Unsmoke” campaign is in fact a marketing drive for its new heated tobacco product Iqos and a blatant attempt to detoxify its brand so it can influence policy and regulation #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI Iqos releases fewer cancer-causing chemicals than cigarettes but does have health risks. Experts fear glossy advertising and glamorous launch events will entice non-smokers to start using it too, addicting them to nicotine #SmokeScreen #Dispatches
@InsidePMI “They’re going to have to sell these replacement products to non-smokers otherwise they’ll go bust”: @DeborahArnott of anti-tobacco org @ASH_LDN questions @insidePMI ‘s promise not to market Iqos at non-smokers #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN “Why are @insidePMI not investing more money in e-cigarettes, which are safer than the Iqos?” asks physician @retoauer #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer Dr @retoauer and team found Iqos does produce smoke, contradicting @insidePMI ‘s claims. He says PMI tried to suppress his research, writing to his supervisors to demand they take down his peer-reviewed study #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer Internal corporate documents obtained by @C4Dispatches show in 2018 @insidePMI agreed to pay for a £1bn government fund to stop smoking. There were strings attached: it wanted a relaxation of regulations in return #SmokeScreen #Dispatches
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer @C4Dispatches The documents show @insidePMI had discussions with ex-MP before he presented a bill proposing the fund to the Commons. If passed it would have scrapped regulations on advertising of heated tobacco products like Iqos #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer @C4Dispatches While claiming to phase out smoking in the UK, @insidePMI sells more than 700 billion cigarettes a year worldwide. In Indonesia @janem finds the company’s adverts near schools. A fifth of teenagers there smoke #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer @C4Dispatches @janem Ali Mazhun is one of millions of Indonesian men who began smoking as a teenager. Three years ago he began coughing up blood and doctors found he had throat cancer. Now he struggles to speak: only his wife can understand him #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer @C4Dispatches @janem .@janem meets two Indonesian students who started smoking at ages 9 and 12. They are addicted to Magnum Mild cigarettes, one of @insidePMI ‘s brands #Dispatches #SmokeScreen
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer @C4Dispatches @janem .@insidePMI says it welcomes open debate but it declined to send an executive to appear on our @C4Dispatches programme. We sent the invite more than two weeks ago but received a written statement instead #SmokeScreen #Dispatches
@InsidePMI @DeborahArnott @ASH_LDN @retoauer @C4Dispatches @janem “The multi-billion dollar tobacco industry will do everything they can to stay in business.” Read the full story behind Philip Morris International's proclaimed mission to “Unsmoke the World”: thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2020-0… #SmokeScreen #Dispatches
