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Anti-tobacco leaders hit out at Foundation Smoke-Free World

Tobacco control leaders have warned the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World against a covet agenda to derail a global push to reduce smoking which kills almost 5 700 people in Malawi.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and Vital Strategies hit out at the foundation’s imminent study on why people smoke.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) ranks tobacco as the worst preventable killer, associated with over 7 million deaths globally.

Smoking kills 7.1 million, according to WHO.

Last September, WHO secretary general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus blacklisted the foundation for receiving funding from Philip Morris, the tobacco company which buys the bulk of Malawi’s leaf.

On Monday, the campaigners hit out at the foundation amid reports that it plans to release a survey into why people smoke despite deadly public health hazards associated with tobacco.

The statement reads: “We don’t need a Philip Morris-funded survey to tell us why people smoke. Smoking is a worldwide health crisis created by tobacco companies – period.

“Corporations like Philip Morris International created and continue to drive the smoking epidemic by targeting children as customers, using slick and deceptive marketing to sell lethal tobacco products, and lobbying and litigating to block solutions that are proven to reduce smoking rates.”

The campaigners dubbed the foundation as a marketing ploy in an attempt to distract the world from the multinational firm’s “true goal: selling more tobacco products.”

“Research funded by Philip Morris through the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is being released in service of their ultimate aim: to protect Philip Morris profits by keeping people around the world dependent on tobacco products,” the activists state.

Recently, the foundation, together with Africa Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC) organised a meeting with government officials, parliamentarians and civil society leaders to discuss the need for crop diversification as tobacco yield and earnings keep dropping.

“Currently, we have enacted a law that will help in marketing commodities come out from this project. We gradually need to start diversifying as the world now is changing,” said James Munthali, the former minister of Agriculture James Munthali, who heads the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture.

However, the tobacco control campaigners warn that the pro-tobacco movement use seemingly noble interventions to delay efforts to smoke out tobacco, falsely portray tobacco firms as socially responsible entities and gain access to the policymaking table.

Malawi is not party to WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, which 181 countries have ratified so far.

Government has long stated that signing up would wreck the economy as tobacco remains the major export, injecting almost two thirds of forex into the fragile economy.

However, the reluctance to sign the global pact against tobacco use has excluded Malawi from global conversations on how to gradually diversify exports and achieve a smoke-free world.

This makes the country a soft spot for tobacco corporate giants vying to increase their customer base and profits.

The campaigners wrote: “Legitimate tobacco control and public health advocates are on the leading edge when it comes to using research to help end this global crisis.

“Projects like The Tobacco Atlas are equipping the field with data that clearly identify the causes behind the tobacco epidemic and the proven solutions that can end tobacco companies’ grip on families, communities and countries across the world.”

The latest edition of the Atlas, released this month at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town, South Africa, shows that the tobacco industry is increasingly targeting vulnerable populations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East that lack strong tobacco control policies.

Delegates at the conference noted that if Philip Morris was truly committed to ending the tobacco epidemic, the company would stop marketing its “deadly products and blocking proven solutions to reduce smoking”.

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