The Smokescreen

Do you remember what people say about things that sound too good to be true? Meet the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

On a planet earth permeated with base hypocrisy, it’s refreshing to occasionally find a grassroots movement that is genuine, honest, and on the side of the angels. That’s why I was ready to be impressed with the apparently righteous work being done by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), and why rumors of its potential demise would be somewhat concerning.

Do you remember what people say about things that sound too good to be true?

FSFW claims that it stands at the forefront of the fight to end smoking - an epidemic that, according to the World Health Organization, annually kills 7 million smokers, plus 1.3 million non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. The CDC reports that in the United States alone, “More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking,” and that 1300 people die every day from smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke. Israel is hardly immune from the scourge of tobacco-related deaths: according to the FSFW website, 8000 Israelis die annually from medical conditions related to smoking. (In contrast, fewer than 13,000 Israelis have died over the past 40 months from COVID-19.)

Our sages assert in Masechet Chulin 10a that chamira sakanta m’isura - that is, something dangerous is treated with greater severity than something which is ritually forbidden. This is established as standard halachic practice by Maimonides in Hilchot Rotzeiach u’Shmirat Nefesh 12:6, where he writes that, “It is also forbidden for someone to walk under a wall that is leaning to the side, or on a rickety bridge, or into a ruin - and similarly with all other comparable situations involving other dangerous acts.” This is codified in Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 116:5, where Rema writes: “One should also beware of all things that lead to danger, for that which is dangerous is treated with greater severity than something which is forbidden. A person should be more careful about a potential danger than about a potential prohibition.” Given these authoritative sources, and given that the facts about the fatal effects of smoking are uncontested, there can be no question that smoking is prohibited by Jewish law. Indeed, in 2006, the Rabbinical Council of America wrote that, “Smoking is clearly and unquestionably forbidden by halacha and… this should be made known to all who care about the Torah and their health.”

For these reasons, it's tempting to support the work of the FSFW, which explains that its mission “is to end smoking in this generation,” and presents a vision of “a world in which combustible tobacco, other toxic forms of tobacco, and smoking-related death and disease are eliminated, and tobacco-dependent agriculture and economies are diversified.”

It’s worth noting the company that created and underwrote the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. According to the FSFW website, “The Foundation is funded by annual gifts from PMI Global Services Inc. (‘PMI’).  The Foundation is independent from PMI, and operates in a manner that ensures its independence from the influence of any commercial entity.”

That’s not very reassuring, because PMI is more commonly known as Philip Morris International.

You may or may not have heard of Philip Morris International, but you definitely have heard of some of its better known products. PMI produces Marlboro cigarettes (the world’s second most valuable cigarette brand), L&M brand cigarettes (third largest in the world), Parliament (tenth), Chesterfield (eleventh), Benson & Hedges (twelfth), and others like Virginia Slims, Merit, and more. According to its own accounting, PMI shipped 621 billion cigarettes in 2022 alone.

Because the foundation which Philip Morris created has a mission “to end smoking in this generation,” it might be surprising that Philip Morris “launched a new high-tar, high-nicotine cigarette brand in Indonesia, expanded cigarette production capabilities in Uzbekistan and promoted and sold flavored cigarettes at a youth-oriented music festival in Argentina” in 2019 - two years after it founded FSFW. It might be surprising that Philip Morris touted a 3.7% increase in cigarette sales worldwide in a 2022 earnings call. It might be surprising that Philip Morris not only continues to advertise cigarettes, but targets populations that statistically have lower smoking rates than other groups - like the Chareidi population in Israel. It might be surprising that Philip Morris circumvented Israeli laws preventing more than one cigarette ad per publication by purchasing giant two-page ads, and including QR codes that offered additional content.

Of course, none of this is actually surprising. The FSFW simply represents a modernized version of the cigarette industry’s longstanding practice of selectively promoting whatever dubious theories support its business: theories that smoking is not harmful, or that smoking is not as harmful as others say, or that smoking is a personal choice and should not be regulated. Whatever works - apparently including saying “We’re against smoking” while actively doing everything possible to undermine that message.

But I don’t believe that the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is a hypocritical camouflage for a massive cigarette conglomerate that sponsors it while simultaneously ignoring everything that the FSFW advocates. I don’t think that FSFW is merely a public relations stunt on the part of the world’s biggest tobacco company to help PMI pretend that it wants to eliminate smoking when, in fact, it plans to do the exact opposite. 

I don’t accept those assumptions because the reality is likely even more pernicious.

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World argues that, “For the incidence of cigarette smoking and other toxic forms of tobacco use to decrease, current users must quit or switch to reduced risk products (“RRPs”), and non-smokers and those who do not use tobacco in any form must not start.” We already know that PMI ignores that second clause (remember the 3.7% increase in sales and their new advertising gimmicks?), so the main point is emphasizing those reduced risk products - that is, supposedly lower risk tobacco products.

Which Philip Morris also makes.

And which is a huge potential worldwide market over which Philip Morris is salivating.

And which are often threatened with regulation by countries across the globe.

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is arguing against the regulation of reduced risk products (which Philip Morris manufactures), under the guise of advocating their use in order to stop smoking worldwide. FSFW, in other words, is an attempt to build a new market of tobacco products while giving lip service - and lip service alone - to the idea that Philip Morris no longer approves of smoking.

Fortunately, it seems that so many actual public health organizations saw through the FSFW’s smokescreen that it has effectively become defunct. Organizations like the American Cancer Society have asserted that “This attempt by Philip Morris International to paint itself as a public health partner is manipulative and dangerous. It is a new twist out of the tobacco industry’s deadly playbook, but nobody should be fooled. It’s a continuation of a decades-long effort to paint over tobacco’s role in spreading death and misery around the globe.” In this case, finally, the good guys seem to have won. The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World has been exposed, and is largely ignored by serious organizations. Maybe - just maybe - parts of the tobacco industry will avoid hypocrisy in the future.

As I was scrolling through The Washington Post online site today, I noticed a banner ad in the middle of an article that called out in block letters: WARNING: In the fight to end smoking, MORE MUST BE DONE - a sentiment backed up on an associated website with the promise that, “We are building our future on replacing cigarettes with smoke-free products that—while not risk-free—are a far better choice than cigarette smoking.” 

The website that promises a smoke-free future is www.pmi.com.

Clearly, the deception perpetrated by companies that kill 8 million people annually continues unabated. Clearly, the war has not been won. In fact, it’s only just beginning.