Two of the world’s richest philanthropists, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg pledged on Wednesday to spend 500 million dollars to make people all over the world stop smoking. They announced the news together at a press conference at the TheTimesCenter in Midtown Manhattan.

Michael Bloomberg is mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg LP, a giant financial software services, news and data company. Through Bloomberg Philanthropies he has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars for research and interventions in health; recipients include the Johns Hopkins University, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization. Under the Bloomberg Initiative, grants are awarded for projects aiming to cut tobacco use.

Bill Gates is leaving his post as chairman of Microsoft, the giant software company that he co-founded with Paul Allen in 1975, to become a full time philanthropist and do more collaborative work. He and his wife Melinda founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has to date spent more than 3 billion dollars in fighting AIDS and malaria, much of it in Africa. Yesterday’s announcement is Gates’ first initiative in the anti-smoking field.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco is going to kill 10 times more people in this century than it did in the last century, with figures suggesting up to a billion deaths, most of them in developing countries like Bangladesh and middle-income countries like Russia, reported the New York Times.

Bloomberg’s plans include a pledge of 250 million dollars over the next four years. This is in addition to 125 million dollars he gave two years ago. The Gates’ will be pledging 125 million dollars over the next five years. These donations will give an enormous boost to the current 20 million dollars a year spent on antismoking efforts in these countries, according to figures from the WHO.

The joint donations will form part of a campaign announced by WHO director Dr Margaret Chan and Bloomberg in February this year. Called MPOWER, the campaign brings together efforts from the WHO, the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, the World Lung Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the CDC, and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The campaign will lobby governments to raise tobacco taxes, stop smoking in public places, ban advertising to children, promote anti-smoking initiatives, and give tools and resourcers to help people quit. There will also be US-based workshops and training for specialists, newswriters, government and health officials, on topics ranging from how to catch smugglers to how to help people quit.

Blomberg welcomed the Gates’ involvement in the campaign:

“I’m delighted Bill and Melinda Gates are supporting one of the most important public health efforts of our time. Our commitments will help governments confront the tobacco epidemic by implementing the proven MPOWER package.”

“This means assuring well-staffed tobacco control programs, raising tobacco taxes, running hard-hitting public information campaigns, creating comprehensive smoke-free public places and banning tobacco advertising,” added Bloomberg.

Gates said that:

“Tobacco-caused diseases have emerged as one of the greatest health challenges facing developing countries.”

“The good news is, we know what it takes to save millions of lives, and where efforts exist, they are working. We are pleased to join with Mayor Bloomberg, who has made the fight against tobacco a priority in New York City and around the world,” he added.

As mayor, Bloomberg has been instrumental in introducing anti-smoking measures to New York City and raising taxes on tobacco.

Information from an accompanying press statement gave some facts about the tobacco crisis in those parts of the world the campaign will focus on:

  • The poorest households in Bangladesh spend almost 10 times as much on tobacco as on education.

  • China has 350 million smokers, about a third of the world’s total, and suffers a million deaths a year from tobacco.

  • Indonesians spend on average 2.5 times more on tobacco than on education, and 3.2 times more on tobacco than on health.

  • In India, where many people smoke “bidis”, deaths due to tobacco-related causes are expected to rise from 700,000 a year to 930,000 a year by 2010.

Source: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, New York Times, WHO, wikipedia.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD