On 12 February, ERS President Mina Gaga and ERS Secretary General Carlos Robalo Cordeiro made an official statement to all members pledging that the Society would not work with the ‘Foundation for a Smoke-Free World’ following clarification that the organisation is funded by the tobacco industry.
ERS shares this stance with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organisations that support smoking prevention and tobacco control efforts worldwide.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — the world’s first public health treaty — clearly states, “There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry’s interests and public health policy interests.” In keeping with this, ERS has an explicit policy of prohibiting work funded by the tobacco industry and membership of the Society is not open to those who accept tobacco industry funding.