What influences the WHO?
Bloomberg and the USA
One of the biggest influences on the WHO and the FCTC (Framework Control on Tobacco Control) is a man from a country which has not ratified the FCTC.
As we’ve explored before on this blog, the United States benefits from tobacco sales in a unique arrangement. Essentially, the more cigarettes are sold the more money individual states get. This may well be the reason the USA did not ratify the FCTC.
Despite not being not part of the framework on tobacco control, the USA has actively sought to undermine the WHO FCTC. It has:
· opposed a ban on free tobacco samples
· opposed advertising restrictions on tobacco products
· opposed a requirement that cigarette warnings are written in the language of the country they are sold in
· opposed a ban on language that suggests cigarettes are less harmful (such as ‘low tar’ or ‘ultra light’).
Yet one of the biggest influences on the WHO is an unelected American billionaire.
Michael Bloomberg is vehemently opposed to vaping and harm reduction.
In the US his foundation has donated 150 million dollars to fighting vaping. This includes paying mothers to tweet against vaping and funding an advertising campaign that, ironically, may have helped reverse a decline in teen vaping. Charities that receive his funding have changed their stance from a cautious recommendation of vaping for smokers to an anti-vaping stance.
Bloomberg doesn’t just work in the USA. In the Philippines, MPs have accused Bloomberg of illegally donating money to tobacco control organisations to influence policy.
Bloomberg is also the WHO ambassador on non-communicable diseases. He paid for the WHO’s report on tobacco, wrote the foreword to it and his staffers may have had input into the report itself. (Details here.) Bloomberg also funds NGOs that work with the WHO.
Conflation with the tobacco industry
A second issue is that vaping is conflated with the tobacco industry.
Ironically, this is partly the result of anti-vaping policies.
The UK continues to have a thriving independent vape industry. However, in countries like the USA, regulations such as the PMTA and PACT are effectively wiping out independent vape companies. This passes control of vaping back to the very industry that is responsible for the problem vaping is trying to solve.
What’s more, and for good reason, nobody trusts tobacco companies. They have a history of lies and manipulation, and it’s no surprise that the instinct of organisations like the WHO is to oppose vaping.
What’s disappointing is that these instincts trump evidence.
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