Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

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The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is an organization founded in 2017. It is funded by Philip Morris International, which had initial plans for $80 million in annual funding, with the aim of smoking harm reduction. The current pledge agreement from PMI to the Foundation, modified in September 2020, promises only $35 million in funding to the Foundation from 2022 through 2029.

Activities

See also: Electronic cigarette and e-cigarette liquid marketing

In its first year, the Foundation spent less on scientific research than on public relations, but had not yet spent most of its yearly budget. Its president was Derek Yach, a former World Health Organization (and later PepsiCo) executive.

An investigation conducted by Le Monde (France), The Investigative Desk (Netherlands), Follow the money (Netherlands) and Knack, published in April 2021, suggests that the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, which is not transparent about the grants it gives to other entities, is a lobbying tool used by Philip Morris International to circumvent the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, whose article 5.3 aims to protect public decisions from tobacco industry lobbying. According to the authors of the investigation, who relied on internal documents of Philip Morris International dated seven years prior in 2014, PMI's strategy consisted of dividing the tobacco control movement (schematically divided between "prohibitionists" and "pragmatists") and bending the WHO in order to promote alternative products (e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, etc.) to cigarettes.

Advocacy groups directly or indirectly funded by the Foundation have stated that vaping with electronic cigarettes is a safer choice than smoking cigarettes, regarding the health effects of COVID-19. This is indeed correct and vaping is safer than smoking, but safest of all is to neither vape nor smoke.

At least one group of researchers who received funding from the Foundation allegedly failed to declare the funding and journals have been accused of neglecting to apply conflict of interest policies. The Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR) at the University of Catania is funded by the Foundation (through an intermediate company named ECLAT SRL) and some of its researchers (such as Riccardo Polosa) published tobacco-related papers without declaring funds received from the Foundation nor conflicts of interest.

On October 4, 2022, it was reported that the Agricultural Transformation Initiative (ATI), a subsidiary of FSFW, supported Malawi-based scholars through the ATI Fellowship and Scholarship Fund. Fifteen postgraduate students shared information about their studies while speaking with experts and students at the North Carolina State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences International Programs. The goal of the event was to use what the students learned to help diversify Malawi’s tobacco-reliant agricultural ecosystem.

Criticism

The creation of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World was met with skepticism by the medical community. The World Health Organization and the Union for International Cancer Control announced that they would not work with the Foundation, and encouraged governments and the public health community to follow their lead.

The independence of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World has been challenged. The Foundation taking funding from Philip Morris International has been criticized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Corporate Accountability International and others.

Some public health organizations have rejected collaboration with the Foundation. The American Cancer Society stated, "This attempt by Philip Morris International to paint itself as a public health partner is manipulative and dangerous. It is a new twist out of the tobacco industry's deadly playbook, but nobody should be fooled. It's a continuation of a decades-long effort to paint over tobacco's role in spreading death and misery around the globe."

See also

• Conflicts of interest in academic publishing
• Disinformation
• Electronic cigarette and e-cigarette liquid marketing
• Front organization
  • Advancement of Sound Science Center
  • Center for Indoor Air Research
  • Tobacco Institute
• Funding bias
• Manufactured controversy
• Merchants of Doubt
• Nicotine marketing
  • History of nicotine marketing
• Tobacco lobby

External links

• Official website
• WHO Statement on the foundation
• Description on the platform Tobacco Tactics