On World No Tobacco Day, Governments Must See Through the Empty Promises of Big Tobacco
Statement of Yolonda Richardson, Executive Vice President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Washington, D.C. – On World No Tobacco Day, observed each year on May 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) is shining a spotlight on the numerous ways the tobacco industry is poisoning our planet.
Tobacco companies like Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco make enormous profits from destroying the environment and selling deadly products. At the same time, the companies have launched massive marketing initiatives to try to fool both public and policymakers into thinking that they are environmentally friendly and health-conscious companies. Nothing could be further from the truth: Big Tobacco is killing millions of people and destroying our planet.
Globally, the world’s largest tobacco companies remain the main cause of the global tobacco epidemic which kills 8 million people each year. On this year’s World No Tobacco Day, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids joins the WHO in calling on governments to see through the tobacco industry’s attempts to distract the world from its environmental harms and the devastating impacts of its deadly products.
There has never been a more urgent time for governments around the world to address tobacco use and the harms caused by the tobacco industry. Without urgent action, tobacco use will kill one billion people this century and continue to destroy our planet.