Bloomberg Philanthropies, whose founder is former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, has invested $20m in an agency that will monitor the tobacco industry, and expose any irregular activities.
The agency named Stop (Stopping Tobacco Organisations and Products), aims to “aggressively monitor deceptive tobacco industry tactics and practices to undermine public health,” said Bloomberg Philanthropies. The agency’s public website will even contain global information and data on the activities of tobacco companies, in low- and middle-income countries where they are seeking to expand their markets, in order to make up for the declining smoking rates in the West.
A reaction to PMI’s Smoke-Free Foundation
This motion is thought to have been brought about as a reaction to the formation of the infamous Foundation for a Smoke-Free World funded by Big Tobacco company PMI. The latter has stated that it aims to fund research, analyse the impact of smoke-free alternatives, keep track of progress towards eliminating smoking and also find ways to help tobacco farmers deal with the reduced need of their crops.
Diane Caruana – Vaping Post – March 12, 2018.
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