Tobacco.org

New York Mayor Takes on Global Smoking  

Bloomberg Philanthropies Continues its Life-Saving Leadership In Global Fight Against Tobacco 

• WHO conference puts cigarette manufacturers on notice 

TOBACCO Companies in Africa should brace themselves for tough times after the world leading names in tobacco control pledged to increase funding towards eradication of what they termed as the "killer industry".

While making his remarks during the official closing of the 15th Wold Conference on Tobacco and Health, New York City Mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg announced that he will commit an additional $220 million to the global fight against tobacco use, bringing his total commitment to more than $600 million. . . .

The WHO chief termed tobacco industries "ruthless and devious enemy" whose products "kill nearly 6 million people each year". "This conference is being held at a time when we are at a crossroads in our efforts to rid the world of a killing addiction," she said. "In principle, the balance is entirely in our favour." But she warned: ''Tobacco industry has changed its face and tactics. The ''wolf '' is no longer in sheep's clothing, and its teeth are bared."

While citing Kenya as an example where tobacco companies have made 'direct' interferences with a country's internal affairs by trying to lure legislatures, the WHO chief emphasised on the need for coalitions of civil society to spearhead the fight. "Experience has shown that when government wing weakens under industry pressure, coalitions of civil society can take up the slack and carry the day," she said. "We need this kind of outcry, this kind of rage."

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• THE ST INTERVIEW: Bloomberg vs Big Tobacco 

New York Mayor Bloomberg donates $220 million to anti-smoking efforts worldwide 

Turkish anti-tobacco fight honored by US 

CAMPBELL: Egyptians Rally Around Fighting Big Tobacco 

. In Egypt, they forced a lot of poor people to not enjoy themselves and doubled the tax for everyone else. It was not any new revenue.

Michael R. Bloomberg, philanthropist and Mayor of New York City, was at the awards ceremony, maybe to wonder why Egypt did not have more important things to worry about, like not implementing Sharia law and going backwards into fundamentalism? No, he thinks tobacco is their big issue. . . .

Now we're getting to why the mayor of New York City loves this stuff. These are all buzzwords for social engineering.

So who won? Egypt, for raising taxes more than anyone else. Uruguay for putting on GIANT warning labels, the Philippines for being the best monitors, Turkey for protecting by monitoring, though it sounds a lot like monitoring - maybe they ran out of countries, have you seen how many people in Turkey smoke?? - and Colombia, for being harder on legal cigarette smokers than they are on their drug cartels.

Don't you feel safer in those countries already?

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Bloomberg won't give in to tobacco industry  

Taifur Rahman, Bangladesh coordinator of CTFK, told bdnews24.com in Singapore that Bloomberg is the major financial source of Bangladesh's fight against tobacco.

"The renewed commitment will help us to carry out our programmes effectively," he said.

Various organisations and governments have been awarded the Bloomberg award for their implementation of at least one of WHO's 'MPOWER' policies.

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Plight of the eight year old smoker on 20 a day in Indonesia as New York mayor pledges $220m to charity that reduces tobacco use 

Bloomberg Philanthropies Honors Egypt's Efforts To Fight Big Tobacco  

Video: Mayor Bloomberg Announces New $220 Million Commitment to Global Tobacco Fight 

Bloomberg Philanthropies Honors Heroes Leading the Fight Against Big Tobacco 

The 2012 Bloomberg Awards winners are:

Monitoring: Health Justice, Philippines is providing industry monitoring information to the government to issue and implement the first of its kind policy to protect tobacco control measures against tobacco industry influence.

Protecting: Turkish National Coalition on Tobacco or Health (Turkish acronym: SSUK) is a coalition of more than 40 organizations that focuses on tobacco control in Turkey. . . .

Warning: Uruguay Ministry of Health has been a world leader in implementing pack warnings. . . .

Enforcing: Corporate Accountability International Colombia (CAI) and Fundación para la Educación y el Desarrollo Social (FES) were selected for an award because of their joint effort to strengthen implementation and enforcement of Colombia's newly passed tobacco advertising and sponsorship ban. . . .

Raising tobacco taxes: Egypt's Ministry of Finance is being recognized for its significant commitment to tobacco taxes

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• VIDEOS: 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) 

VIDEO: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg Announces MPOWER Award Winners 

Bloomberg steps up antismoking push ($$)