Philip Morris Claims Cigarettes Reduce Healthcare Costs

Did you hear the one about the company that emphasized how efficiently its product kills its customers? Believe it or not, that, in a nutshell, is what tobacco giant Philip Morris is telling the government of the Czech Republic as the company lobbies against stricter health regulations on cigarettes.

CBS's Jim Axelrod has more on this.

The world's largest cigarette maker has long "headed west" in search of sales. But it's the way it's gone east that's creating a new hotspot for Philip Morris.

The company is lobbying the Czech government with a study of "indirect positive effects" of smoking--detailing "savings in public healthcare costs and state pensions due to early mortality of smokers."

"No other company in the world would claim that killing its customers is good for society," says antismoking activist Joe Cherner.

That's right, a company that long denied smoking led to early deaths is now saying a government can save $30 million a year in healthcare, housing, and pensions it won't have to pay to smokers who die before collecting.

"It's an outrageous argument to make," says Kate Mulvey of INFACT. "It would be outrageous logic on which to base public policy."

Social activist Mulvey oversaw a documentary about Philip Morris--describing how the company grabbed control of 85% of the Czech cigarette market in the last decade.

In a country where smoking ads run before movies, smoking rates run above average. And now the Czech government faces a dilemma: adopt antismoking laws or be kept out of the European Union.

"And Philip Morris is not going to sit still and watch the Czech government prevent another generation of tobacco addiction and cost Philip Morris money," says Cherner.

Philip Morris, which has been polishing its image with a public relations campaign and goodwill TV ads, would not talk on camera, but it released a statement that "it deeply regrets any impression from this study that the premature death of smokers represents a benefit to society."

"It really lays bare the real Philip Morris behind the warm, fuzzy image they are trying to project," says Mulvey.
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