Michael R. Bloomberg announced today that he will donate $125 million to create the “Worldwide Stop Smoking Initiative,” to help end dependence on tobacco, a highly addictive and deadly substance. The contributions should at least double the private and public donor resources devoted to fighting tobacco use in developing countries, where most smokers live.
“Tobacco is now the world’s leading killer,” said Bloomberg. “We have the proven means to reduce tobacco use, but policy makers are not yet applying these interventions. Smoking doesn’t just hurt smokers, it also harms and can kill people around them. This initiative isn’t just for the 20% of the world’s population who smoke but also for the 80% who don’t.”
This initiative will provide initial funds over the next two years for a comprehensive program to help the world become tobacco-free. There will be four components of the initiative:
1. Refine and optimize tobacco programs to help smokers stop and prevent children from ever starting.
2. Support public sector efforts to pass and enforce key laws and implement effective policies, in particular to tax cigarettes, prevent smuggling, change the image of tobacco, and protect workers from exposure to other people’s smoke.
3. Support advocates’ efforts to educate communities about the harms of tobacco, and the potential and status of key programs to help make the world tobacco-free.
4. Develop a rigorous system to monitor the status of global tobacco use and tobacco-free programs, and track countries’ progress in implementing key interventions.
The key partners for this initiative will be existing organizations, which will coordinate a wide range of actions, including: creating a global clearinghouse for anti-tobacco ads; supporting the advocacy community including a legal consortium to assist with legislation; improving capacity to implement and enforce effective programs; establishing systematic, standardized global monitoring of the tobacco epidemic; and optimizing and analyzing anti-smoking interventions.
“I’m making a social investment. It’s based on my experience that with better data, more focused public health interventions, and heightened political advocacy, governments will enact policies that have huge health, social and economic benefits. I hope this program will save millions of lives and save governments billions of dollars. I hope others will add their support to this and other freedom from tobacco initiatives. Millions of lives in our generation and coming generations are at stake,” Bloomberg concluded.
Background on tobacco and anti-tobacco initiatives:
