• $220 million from Bloomberg to fight ills of smoking source

» That brings the grand total to $600 million: Michael Bloomberg’s spent hundreds of millions to fight smoking globally through his charitable foundation. The NYC mayor, who calls tobacco ”a scourge all over the world,” plans to use the money to fund legal challenges against smoking in low-and-moderate-income countries where smoking is widespread, including Russia, China and India. Bloomberg’s anti-smoking efforts in NYC (which included increasing cigarette taxes and encouraging directors not to film actors smoking in films) have met with success; the smoking rate has dropped in the city. Bloomberg might face trouble in China, however: Smoking is a very common part of socializing in the region and cigarettes cost less than a dollar a pack, and China relies heavily on tax revenues raised through packs of cigarettes.

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