Billionaire philanthropists to fight tobacco

The New York Times editorial on July 29 wonders whether the news of Bill Gates and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joining forces to fight smoking in the developing world means that the tobacco industry has finally met its match.

The two billionaire philanthropists have, in fact, committed to raise and invest 500 million dollars (about 320 million euros) to prevent tobacco companies from marketing addicting new costumers in the world’s south. Bloomberg plans to invest a further 250 million dollars over the next four years and Gates 125 million dollars over the next five years.

Considering that currently only 20 million dollars are spent on anti smoking campaigns in poor countries it is likely that the philanthropists will cause quite a ripple. Their tactics? To put pressure on governments to raise taxes on tobacco, to prohibit smoking in public places and implement programmes to help people stop smoking.

The main target countries will be China, India and Russia as well as Africa, where it is predicted that smoking will rise over the course of the next years.

Find out more: www.nytimes.com