{"id":31041,"date":"2025-11-18T11:47:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=31041"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:47:07","slug":"echo-chamber-more-than-half-of-whos-accredited-tobacco-control-ngos-underwritten-by-mike-bloomberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/echo-chamber-more-than-half-of-whos-accredited-tobacco-control-ngos-underwritten-by-mike-bloomberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Echo chamber? More than half of WHO\u2019s accredited tobacco control NGOs underwritten by Mike Bloomberg"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At least 15 of the 29 NGOs were either created by Michael Bloomberg\u2019s foundations, Bloomberg Philanthropies or the Bloomberg Family Foundation; or receive significant funding from his foundations, according to an investigation by The Firebreak<\/a>, calling into question the extent to which WHO\u2019s anti harm reduction stance is driven by Bloomberg\u2019s personal views.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a perfect example of a captured UN organization\u201d writes David Zaruk, who conducted the investigation. CTA has interviewed Zaruk and we\u2019ll publish that in the coming weeks<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf the WHO were to conduct or contract a study on the safety of tobacco harm reduction tools like vaping or nicotine pouches, they would be compelled to first go to academic institutions and organizations funded by Michael Bloomberg\u201d, he continues.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Follow the money<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Firebreak investigation looked into the 29 WHO approved civil society organizations admitted to the FCTC COP11. These are the only groups allowed to participate and hold side events for the national delegates. Many used to be mostly medical associations, health and cancer research groups, but this is no longer the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several \u201cBloomberg Babies\u201d, as Zaruk calls them, like Vital Strategies and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, pushed hard to ban vaping in countries like Mexico, India and the Philippines despite evidence of their success as smoking cessation devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questionable finances<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Many US-based Bloomberg financed NGOs pay each of their top ten directors an average salary exceeding $25,000 a month according to the research. Many also have office and administration costs that exceed their program or grant allocations. This is \u201ceven more curious if you consider how these groups often operate out of the same offices and share staff\u201d, says Zaruk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yolanda Richardson, head of the Center for Tobacco Free Kids, makes $368,874 per year from CTFK and affiliated organisations, according to the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CEO of Vital Strategies, Jose Luis Castro, makes $615,746; and salaries account for 23% of the NGO\u2019s $70 million in 2023 revenue. \u201cGiven that Vital Strategies is responsible for regranting most of its funds to other organizations in the tobacco control field, paying themselves almost a quarter of all of the grants they received comes across as, well, lavish\u201d, Zaruk observes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 15 of the 29 NGOs were either created by Michael Bloomberg\u2019s foundations, Bloomberg Philanthropies or the Bloomberg Family Foundation; or receive significant funding from his foundations, according to an investigation by The Firebreak, calling into question the extent to which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990003,"featured_media":31042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[350,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-31041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-india","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31049,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31041\/revisions\/31049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31041"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=31041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}