More than 5,000 chemicals — or smoke constituents – are formed when tobacco is burned. More than 100 of these smoke constituents have been identified by public health authorities as causes or potential causes of smoking related diseases, including cardiovascular disease (heart disease), lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema, chronic bronchitis).  Smokers are far more likely to become sick with one of these diseases than non-smokers.  In addition, smoking is addictive, and it can be very difficult to stop smoking.

These are the views of leading scientific and public health organizations around the world.  They are also the views of Philip Morris International.

There are a broad variety of conventional combustible cigarette brands available on the market with varying features (style of the cigarettes, taste, tar or nicotine yields etc.). Smokers should not assume that any of these features means that one cigarette is less harmful or addictive than another.

For more detailed information about what scientific and public health organizations are saying about the health effects of smoking, please refer to the links on the right of this page