Web of cash and contacts ties Public Health England to Big Tobacco
“Doctors have criticized the organization responsible for protecting UK health over its work with a vaping pressure group that is itself linked to the world’s largest multinational tobacco company. Public Health England paid £40,000 for a series of YouTube videos co-produced by the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) and held numerous meetings with the group, despite its ties to Philip Morris International… The tobacco industry, [professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Martin] McKee said, “exerts its influence in many ways, often hidden from public gaze… Governments have committed to shunning this industry under an international health treaty (WHO FCTC), but there is a need for constant vigilance.”” [Ben Stockton, Madlen Davies, Matthew Chapman, Tamasin Cave. Web of cash and contacts ties Public Health England to Big Tobacco, Bureau of Investigative Journalism]: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2020-03-20/public-health-england-paid-group-linked-to-big-tobacco
Comment: Associations of many organizations at different levels illustrate how tobacco interests become a network of influence which drive public tobacco policy positions.
Stephen Hamann, TRC
