Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is an “industry-influenced scientific lobby group”

The Philip Morris International (PMI) funded Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) should be understood as an industry-influenced scientific lobby group promoting tobacco industry interests, similar to historical tobacco industry front groups, according to a new paper published in the BMJ journal Tobacco Control.

A group of researchers from TCRG and the Centre for Qualitative Research, led by Tess Legg, analysed four years of FSFW’s scientific outputs and activities and found that the organisation’s actions benefitted the tobacco industry by advocating for industry involvement in science and policymaking, obscuring PMI’s involvement in science, rallying against researchers and advocates working in tobacco control, and pushing for the renormalisation of the tobacco industry.

Read the paper:

2023. Legg, B.  Clift, A.B. Gilmore, Document analysis of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World’s scientific outputs and activities: a case study in contemporary tobacco industry agnogenesis, Tobacco Control, Published Online First: 03 May 2023. doi: 10.1136/tc-2022-057667

Find out more about the Foundation on the FSFW Tobacco Tactics page and by exploring the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World: Research Database.