Derek Yach will lead Philip Morris International’s new Foundation for a Smoke Free World, the latest in PM’s corporate social responsibility PR efforts.
It is also part of the company’s effort to promote its new heat-not-burn IQOS product.
Initial funding of $80 million a year (with a 12 year commitment) comes from Philip Morris, with the goal of engaging other nonprofits. (This is about .1% of PMI’s revenues and 1% of its profits.)
Like all past industry front groups, the foundation claims “PMI and the tobacco industry are precluded from having any influence over how the Foundation spends its funds or focuses its activities.”
If PMI was serious about achieving a smoke free world, it could stop aggressively lobbying against proper implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or stop selling Marlboros and other cigarettes.
That’s what Derek would have said in response to this ruse back when he was a public health leader at WHO.
Stanton A. Glantz – UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education – September 12, 2017.
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