Bloomberg and Gates launch legal fund to help countries fight big tobacco
A $4m (£2.7m) fighting fund to help governments around the world in legal battles against the tobacco industry has been announced by BloombergPhilanthropies, seeking to assist countries which are making slow progress curbing smoking.
While smoking is becoming a marginalised pastime in more affluent countries where laws on smoking in public places are in force, there is concern about the tobacco industry push-back that involves legal challenges to new measures such as plain packaging.
The fund, to which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also contributing, will give countries the technical support of legal experts to draw up legislation as well as defend court actions brought by tobacco companies. It is expected to grow as other donors join in. Australia and Uruguay are two of the countries where public health measures have been challenged by industry.
At the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi, Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation, also pointed to the danger.
“In an ominous trend, in some countries the battle between tobacco and health has moved into the courts,” she said. “Governments wishing to protect their citizens through larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packs or by introducing plain packaging are being intimidated by industry’s threats of lengthy and costly litigation. This is an effort to deprive governments of their sovereign right to legislate in the public interest. We will push back hard.”
Smoking killed 10 million people in the last century and is predicted to cause 1 billion deaths this century. A global report launched at the conference found there were 3.9 billion smokers aged 15 and over in WHO member states in 2010. By 2025, that number is predicted to grow to 5 billion if the present pace of tobacco control continues. Experts say the global target – to cut smoking worldwide by 30% from 2010 levels by 2025 – will not be reached if more action is not taken. Smoking rates have fallen for both men and women in most countries, but only 37 nations are on course to meet the target.
(From The Guardian)
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