Korea Philip Morris Converts Smoking Rooms to Vaping Rooms at Yangsan Factory and Seoul Office

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Sunghye] Philip Morris Korea announced on the 19th that it has removed all smoking rooms inside its factory located in Yangsan and its office in Seoul, replacing them with vaping rooms dedicated to electronic cigarettes.

Philip Morris Korea's Yangsan factory, located in Sanmak Industrial Complex, Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, conducted an organizational participation program for a "smoke-free future." As a result, it was recently able to replace all smoking rooms within the factory with vaping rooms dedicated to electronic cigarettes. Since October 2018, the Yangsan factory has focused on improving the environment for voluntary switching by providing accurate information about heated tobacco products to employees who smoked conventional cigarettes and actively sharing the advantages and areas for improvement experienced during the transition to electronic cigarettes.

As the participation program continued for over a year, the number of employees switching to heated tobacco products gradually increased, and concerns about secondhand smoke from conventional cigarettes inside the factory building grew. Irina Ashukina, the Yangsan factory manager, stated, "According to a survey conducted among approximately 600 employees at Philip Morris Korea's Yangsan factory, about 300 smokers, 99% use heated tobacco products, and it is estimated that 73% of them have completely quit smoking conventional cigarettes. Although outdoor smoking areas still exist to accommodate employees who continue to smoke conventional cigarettes, we will continue to support more employees in successfully switching to electronic cigarettes so that such spaces are no longer necessary."

The Yangsan factory, which realized the transition to vaping rooms, is the only production base in the Asia-Pacific region producing HEETS, excluding five factories in Europe. Philip Morris Korea invested over 300 billion KRW in establishing HEETS production facilities at the Yangsan factory and began production in 2018. Currently, all 13 types of HEETS sold domestically are produced here.

Since launching IQOS, an innovative heating-type product, and its dedicated tobacco product HEETS in June 2017, Philip Morris Korea has consistently encouraged voluntary switching among employees who smoked conventional cigarettes. Until 2018, the Yeouido Seoul office had both smoking rooms for conventional cigarettes and vaping rooms for electronic cigarettes. However, as most employees switched to heated tobacco products, only the vaping room has been operated since last year, practicing the company's vision of a smoke-free future.

Jung Il-woo, CEO of Philip Morris Korea, said, "The changes at Philip Morris Korea's Yangsan factory and Seoul office are the result of employees' will and actions to 'practice the company's vision of a smoke-free future starting with myself.' We hope that our efforts and know-how in creating smoke-free environments at workplaces, homes, and public places will be actively shared externally."