The CEO of Phillip Morris told a cancer nurse yesterday that though smoking "is addictive, it is not that hard to quit," and now anti-smoking groups are understandably up in arms. The statement from Louis C. Camilleri came at a shareholders meeting in which he was questioned by an anti-smoking nurse who cited statistics that tobacco use kills more than 400,000 Americans and 5 million people worldwide each year.
Here's Camilleri's full response:
We take our responsibility very seriously, and I don't think we get enough recognition for the efforts we make to ensure that there is effective worldwide regulation of a product that is harmful and that is addictive. Nevertheless, whilst it is addictive, it is not that hard to quit. ... There are more previous smokers in America today than current smokers.
The statement was immediately met with a barrage of refutations citing studies that prove that the 56-year-old Camilleri—who smokes and was quoted in 2009 as saying he'd only quit once for three months when he had a cold—was just flat out wrong.
Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told Newsday the comments represent the "most irresponsible form of corporate double-speak." He continued: "Study after study has documented the powerful addiction to cigarettes is one of the most difficult to overcome of any drug anywhere in the world. It is stunning in the face of overwhelming science for the leader of the world's largest private tobacco company to deny how difficult and addictive cigarettes are." And U.S. Public Health Service statistics show that 45 percent of U.S. smokers try to quit each year yet only four to seven percent are successful. T
This isn't the first time a tobacco executive has denied the addictiveness of their product (for instance in 1997 Phillip Morris Tobacco's CEO James Morgan was quoted as saying "Cigarettes are no more addictive than gummi bears.") but such a blatant lie hasn't been on the record in some time. Sure, it is Camilleri's job to defend his industry (why else would he get paid $20.6 million dollars a year) and at least he did acknowledge that smoking is addictive, but there has to be a more creative way to do so than to pretend that anyone can just quit smoking. Because if they could, do you think New York City would really spend so much money every year giving out free patches and gum?
Now, a personal aside: Three hundred fifty-three days ago, I lost my father to lung cancer (this also happens to be the second anniversary of my mother's death). My father's passing was directly related to his 50+ year smoking habit. I won't for a second pretend he wasn't culpable in what happened—my dad loved the emotional and physical action of smoking and unfortunately passed that love on to some of his children—but if smoking were "not that hard to quit" he really would have done it. If not after his first heart attack, then at least after his second. He certainly understood it was killing him. I agree with Audrey Silk that smoking is a choice that adults should be allowed to make for themselves, but that doesn't mean any of us should for one second pretend that cigarettes aren't designed to be a habit that is incredibly difficult to kick.
