Note: Adriana Carvalho was unable to deliver this question at the Philip Morris International annual meeting. Below is what Adriana intended to ask.
“My name is Adriana Carvalho, I am here representing ACT Health Promotion Brazil and the people that die in Brazil ever year due to tobacco related diseases.
In the United States, PMI and other cigarette companies must reimburse US states for the cost of treating related tobacco diseases for 20 years, and this will occur in perpetuity, due to court settlements.
This reimbursement, however, only occurs in the USA. In no other country is this bill paid, although PMI sells its cigarettes in dozens of countries, and it also burdens their health systems with the treatment of diseases caused by smoking. The company could spontaneously pay this bill, as it does in USA, since it is the same company and the same product sold.
In Canada and Brazil, there are already lawsuits charging this account. In Brazil, PMI is a defendant in the process. My question is: why does the company not pay this bill at once, not only as an attitude of social responsibility, but assuming its true responsibility in its debt to society?”
