A new organization called the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is being criticized by health and anti-smoking groups. They accuse the foundation of acting secretly to assist tobacco companies, a charge the foundation’s president denied. Derek Yach is the founder and head of the non-profit foundation. He was one of the planners of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005. Yach said the Convention has been largely successful in preventing people from smoking and in slowing the increase in kids through higher taxes, marketing and so on. But, he told VOA, the Convention does not focus on trying to get the billion current smokers in the world to quit the habit. Yach said more than seven million people globally die earlier than necessary each year from tobacco. He said his foundation’s mission was to get these smokers away from their addiction by using new harm reduction tools such as e-cigarettes and vaping.
