Michael Bloomberg, WHO Global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO.
Kenya is expected to benefit from a Sh2 billion fund that will monitor deceptive tobacco industry tactics and practices to undermine public health.
The funding was announced by former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his non-profit initiative Bloomberg Philanthropies.
It will go to Stopping Tobacco Organisations and Products, a new global watchdog that will monitor and expose the industry's underhand tactics across the world.
In Kenya, a report released last year revealed cigarette makers have been conniving with both the executive and legislature to interfere with implementation of tobacco control measures.
The research dubbed "Smoking out lies", released by Nairobi legal think-tank International Institute for Legislative Affairs, said the players employ tactics among them influencing policy and legislation, litigation, using front groups, and illicit trade.
Tobacco has no known benefit to the body but causes cancer, heart complications, non-communicable diseases and death.
“Over the last decade tobacco control measures have saved nearly 35 million lives, but as more cities and countries take action, the tobacco industry is pushing to find new users, particularly among young people," said Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases and Bloomberg Philanthropies founder. “We cannot stand by as the industry misleads the public in an effort to get more people hooked on its products - and this global watchdog will help us hold the industry accountable.”
He said STOP will deliver regular reports detailing tactics and strategies both at global and country-level and will provide tools and training materials for countries to combat Big Tobacco’s influence.
Findings will be publicly available and fully aligned with Article 5.3 of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that clearly outlines the prohibition of tobacco industry involvement in government policy making.
Bloomberg spoke at an ongoing World Conference on Health or Tobacco in Cape Town, South Africa.
Head of WHO Dr Tedros Adhanom noted recently tobacco company Philip Morris International provided the initial $80 million of funding to “Foundation for a Smoke-Free World,” a move seen by many public health experts as a thinly veiled effort to legitimise the tobacco industry and allow them access to the policy-making table.
"We have advised governments across the world to have nothing to do with that foundation," he said.
He said the industry is currently pushing alternative products, such as heat-not-burn and e-cigarettes, which are also harmful.
He said tobacco industry-funded research has repeatedly been a smokescreen for behavior that has led to worse outcomes for smokers. For example, supposedly safer low-tar and filtered cigarettes led to greater numbers of smokers, deeper inhalation patterns, and or higher daily consumption – all worsening public health worldwide.
“STOP is a warning call to Big Tobacco that they are on notice,” Dr Tedros said. “The World Health Organization and our partners will not accept efforts to undermine the huge successes in tobacco control that we have achieved over the past few decades. There is no going back.”
"STOP will commit itself to exposing this industry wherever it wields its considerable resources to influence government policy," said Dr Kelly Henning, director of public health programmes at Bloomberg Philanthropies.
US non-profit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids praised the announcement and said it comes when tobacco giants such as Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco are waging duplicitous PR campaigns.
CTFK President Matthew L. Myers said the companies are marketing cigarettes even more aggressively in vulnerable low- and middle-income countries and often in ways that appeal to kids.
"They also fight in country after country to defeat proven strategies that reduce tobacco use and save lives. Philip Morris in particular has filed expensive lawsuits against strong tobacco control laws across the globe, and a 2017 investigative report by Reuters exposed a massive, secret campaign by the company aimed at “bringing to heel the world’s tobacco control treaty”," he said.
Myers said governments across the globe must stand up to the tobacco industry and fully implement the proven strategies called for by the tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. "These include significant tobacco tax increases, comprehensive smoke-free laws, advertising bans and large, graphic health warnings," he said.
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