Report Funded by Bloomberg Lists Countries Affiliated With Big Tobacco

Source from:  Vapingpost 02/22/2021

Released by the STOP partnership, the report was funded by a three-year grant of $20 million awarded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. “This is the only product I know of where if you use it as advertised, it will kill you,” said Bloomberg about cigarettes in 2018, when he awarded the grant.

Ranking 57 countries based on how accommodating they are to tobacco companies, the report placed Japan and Indonesia at the top of the list, in terms of being accomodating. Romania, China and Lebanon, were also among the 10 worst offenders, and Malaysia and India were another two Asian nations which did not rank well.

US ranks as worst Western country

Compiled by non-profit groups based in France, England and Thailand, the report listed the United States as being the most accomodating Western nation, followed by Spain and Germany.

“The tobacco industry has a well-documented history of deception and of capitalising on humanitarian crises, and it is using the pandemic to attempt to improve its deteriorating public image,” commented Adriana Blanco Marquizo, head of the secretariat for the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Kenya, was reprimanded for listing tobacco products as “essential products” during the pandemic, and Jordan for allowing the delivery of cigarettes with bread and other foods, directly to residential neighbourhoods. By contrast, India and South Africa were praised for banning the sale of tobacco products during the pandemic.