{"id":461,"date":"2023-12-14T11:01:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T11:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/tcrg\/?p=461"},"modified":"2024-05-16T09:52:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T08:52:58","slug":"the-foundation-for-a-smoke-free-worlds-rebrand-is-imminent-but-this-industry-funded-scientific-lobby-group-remains-a-danger-to-tobacco-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/tcrg\/2023\/12\/14\/the-foundation-for-a-smoke-free-worlds-rebrand-is-imminent-but-this-industry-funded-scientific-lobby-group-remains-a-danger-to-tobacco-control\/","title":{"rendered":"The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World\u2019s rebrand is imminent, but this industry-funded scientific lobby group remains a danger to tobacco control"},"content":{"rendered":"
In May 2024 the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World rebranded, changing its name to Global Action to End Smoking<\/a>, and stating that \u201cThe organization does not seek or accept funding from companies that produce tobacco or non-medicinal nicotine products.\u201d This followed the cancellation of PMI\u2019s funding agreement with the former Foundation in 2023. As it stands, Global Action to End Smoking (GAES) is still solely funded by money granted by PMI.<\/span><\/h5>\n
Read on for our earlier thoughts on the implications of this rebrand.<\/h5>\n

Written by Dr Tess Legg, Research Associate in the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath<\/em><\/p>\n

Since the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World\u2019s (FSFW) launch in September 2017, TCRG researchers have been monitoring and investigating<\/a> the organisation. Through analysing its scientific activities, our evidence has demonstrated<\/a> that FSFW has functioned as a tobacco industry-influenced scientific lobby group furthering the interests of the industry, rather than the independent public health organisation it claims to be.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to October 2023, six years on from the organisation\u2019s launch, and FSFW has announced<\/a> it has received its final payment from its funder, tobacco corporation Philip Morris International (PMI), and that the pledge agreement between the two has concluded. This is despite the original agreement outlining that PMI would fund FSFW for twelve years in the first instance. The organisation\u2019s new President has taken to X<\/a> (formally Twitter) to state that, going forward, he will neither seek nor accept further tobacco industry funds.<\/p>\n

But how should these announcements be understood? Is this the first step towards FSFW becoming a credible scientific organisation, or does it remain a danger to tobacco control and public health? As has been the case historically with tobacco industry-funded third parties, FSFW\u2019s opaque way of operating<\/a> often makes it impossible to know what is happening behind closed doors; we can\u2019t simply \u201cpop the hood\u201d and take a look inside at its inner workings. What we can do, though, is consider some facts at hand:<\/p>\n