The College of Physicians of Las Palmas has shown its concern about the “La Graciosa without smoke” campaign announced last week by the Teguise City Council, stressing that behind it is the largest tobacco company in the world, Philip Morris International, which “intends to use the image of the eighth island for its advertising campaigns, as it has already done with a small Greek island.”
“With this maneuver, the multinational tobacco company speculates with the public health of the inhabitants of La Graciosa," the College of Physicians warns in a statement. In this regard, it emphasizes that the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, founded by Philip Morris International in 2017 with almost a trillion dollars, “is dedicated to sponsoring the sale of the IQOS device and tobacco consumption.”
“Under a false appearance of fighting climate change, it intends to perpetuate nicotine addiction,” he warns, recalling that “the tobacco industry has already tried, throughout history and repeatedly, without any scientific endorsement, to present its new products as almost harmless,” such as “cigarettes with filters, 'light' cigarettes or 'low tar' cigarettes." “None of these presentations reduced tobacco mortality” and “IQOS seems to be the same story," they warn.
Thus, the College insists that “no medical society recommends IQOS as a method to quit smoking” and emphasizes that “its use creates dual smokers and can distance smokers from medical care against smoking and effective treatments.”
“Regardless of the damage caused by inhaled tobacco with the IQOS device, the damage that the materials of the device itself may induce, which are subjected to temperatures above 300 degrees during inhalation, is unknown,” adds the College of Physicians, which considers that “with its actions, the Philip Morris foundation intends to divert public attention from the efforts that doctors make in the fight against smoking, considered the greatest avoidable risk to which humanity is exposed.”
"Connivance in the sale of the image of La Graciosa"
“The accreditation they offer to La Graciosa and its inhabitants, more than a credit, we interpret it as a discredit and we encourage its residents not to participate and not to allow commercial interests, however powerful they may be, to tarnish the idyllic image of the island,” demand from this medical association.
In addition, they recall that “top-level scientific publications such as Lancet and the Journal of American Medical Association have already warned about the danger of collaborating with this foundation,” which they point out that “for the scientific world, it resembles the wolf in sheep's clothing.”
In fact, they affirm that more than a hundred international organizations have called for a boycott of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Heart Foundation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, the American Cancer Society and the journal Tobacco Control (the world's most prestigious scientific publication on smoking).
“Canarian politicians must assess their possible connivance in the sale of the image of La Graciosa. The island is being sold as a healthy territory when what they are doing is attacking public health, by perpetuating nicotine addiction,” warns the College of Physicians.
For this reason, it asks political representatives and the citizens of La Graciosa to “reject any recognition from the tobacco industries,” to “prevent them from advertising with their name” and to “return any distinction or subsidy they have received from Philip Morris and its Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.”
