Tobacco exec blows smoke, says cigarettes ‘not that hard to quit’

You’re getting away with something here; don’t say anything that may provoke the masses.

Someone should’ve told that to Philip Morris International CEO Louis C. Camilleri. He’s making headlines this morning for telling a cancer nurse and outspoken critic of the tobacco industry that cigarettes are “not that hard to quit.”

A good number of America’s 25 million smokers would probably disagree with that idea.

Camilleri made this statement during his company’s annual shareholder meeting in New York on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, executives from Marlboro and other tobacco brands owned by Philip Morris International that are sold overseas spent most of the meeting sparring with anti-tobacco activists and other corporate accountability groups.

Philip Morris International sells tobacco products outside the U.S. It ranks as the world’s largest non-governmental seller of cigarettes. In 2008, the company spun off from parent Altria, which continues to sell Marlboro and other tobacco brands within the U.S.