Opponents of Big Tobacco say a decision by the International Labor Organization to stop accepting funds from the industry is a step in the right direction, but are urging the U.N.-backed agency to go further and “completely shut the door.”
On Thursday, the ILO agreed not to renew a contract with Japan Tobacco International next month — a decision that ended, for now, the influence of the tobacco industry in the last U.N. institution to which it had links.
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Mafoya Dossoumon, spokesman for the Framework Convention Alliance, which unites some 500 anti-tobacco industry groups, says the ILO move was a “good thing.”
However, he said Friday his group wanted more clarity about ILO plans to enact “appropriate safeguards” about its funding sources, and cautioned it’s possible Big Tobacco could return.
