New York City’s Mayor
Contributes to a World-
Benefiting Cause

Michael Bloomberg ♥♥♥♥♥, the mayor of New York City, recently took his anti-smoking crusade a step further.  On August 15, 2006, he pledged to spend US$125 million of his own money on a global anti-smoking campaign. This donation, to be distributed to existing organizations over two years, is the largest single contribution made to global tobacco control efforts.

Mr. Bloomberg, one of the richest people in the United States, doesn’t usually publicize his philanthropy.  This time, however, he discussed his anti-smoking campaign publicly and released a statement about it through a public relations firm.  His motivation was to make anti-smoking organizations aware of the funds.  Bloomberg said he wants “to attract the best and see if anybody has any ideas that we haven’t thought of.”

Bloomberg quit smoking about 30 years ago.  Since then he has been a staunch opponent of the tobacco industry.  Upon becoming Mayor, he recruited Dr. Thomas R. Frieden as his health commissioner.  Dr. Frieden is an epidemiologist who shares Bloomberg’s strict anti-tobacco views.  Together, they came up with a multi-faceted plan to decrease tobacco use.  It included increasing taxes on cigarettes, pushing for smoke-free workplace legislation that would ban smoking in all New York City bars and restaurants, distributing nicotine replacement products to help people quit smoking, and implementing a public education campaign to increase awareness of the health risks associated with tobacco.

“I think we’ve learned some important things about how we convince people to stop smoking,” Bloomberg said at a news conference. He described the new global anti-smoking campaign as “a social investment.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that smoking is the leading preventable cause of death globally, killing 5 million people each year. “There is now a global momentum to reverse that, with many countries both wealthy and poor taking action to restrict tobacco use, and support those who need help stopping,” said Dr. Anders Nordstrom, Acting Director-General of WHO.  Mr. Bloomberg’s generous contribution, according to Dr. Nordstrom, will help to increase the momentum of the anti-tobacco movement.

For more information, please see:
http://no-smoking.org/aug06/08-16-06-3.html
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0608/S00238.htm

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