While the controversy around the sponsorship of Philip Morris at the Dubai expo rages in Switzerland, the former ambassador Thomas Borer lobbying international organizations in Geneva for Juul, a company specializing in e-cigarettes linked to the big tobacco company.
EX-AMBASSADOR GIVES MESSAGE ABOUT TOBACCO INDUSTRY
Last week, the American group Philip Morris International and the Confederation have aroused the anger of the WHO, the Federal Office of Public Health and many NGOs, because the big tobacco company will be the main sponsor of the Swiss Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo in 2020.
Parliament will also look into this matter at the start of the school year. It shows that cigarette manufacturers, whether electronic or conventional, are still very active in public relations. But sponsorship is only the visible part of their activities. Thus, underground, the tobacco lobby, for example, has been trying for a while to find its way into international Geneva.
This affair of the Swiss Pavilion financed by the world number one in cigarettes does not surprise everyone. So, Ilona Kickbusch, professor at the Graduate Institute and long-time collaborator at the World Health Organization, observes the growing influence of Philip Morris in international Geneva: “ There have been approaches with several categories of actors, at the academic level, at the level of nations, with institutes, or even the UN itself.“, She revealed in the program Tout un monde de la RTS.
« Now that the industry is making new products [like electronic cigarettes], it's part of their new strategy to want to come back to the family. »She declares.
For Philip Morris, the challenge is to integrate the current discussions of the WHO framework convention on tobacco control. The multinational has also received a boost from the UN boss in Geneva, Michael Moller : just before leaving his post, he sent a letter to the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by asking him to integrate the tobacco giants in future discussions.
« I found it very strange. I wonder why a departing UN official feels the need to lobby for greater involvement of the tobacco industry in health policies. There is a strong international standard that excludes this industry from such discussions, and there is a very good reason for this: the goals of tobacco are totally inconsistent with those of public health“, Reacted strongly Chris Bostic, vice-director at Action Smoking and Health, an international group of associations for restricting access to cigarettes.
In the field, it is notably Thomas Borer, the ex-Swiss ambassador to Germany and the man of the task force for Jewish funds dormant in the nineties, which is responsible for getting the messages of the tobacco industry to international Geneva. He is lobbying for the young Californian company Juul. It sells electronic cigarettes and landed in Europe and Switzerland after having won, in two years, 75% of the American vaping market. However, the company Altria, which is Philip Morris in the United States, holds a third of its capital.
Juul is accused by US health officials of spreading an epidemic of nicotine addiction among young people and is facing heavy criticism from Congress these days. While he was ready to speak on RTS to explain his tenure with Juul, the latter finally refused any interview at the last moment.
Source : Rts.ch/
