At La Trobe we strongly support and implement an anti-tobacco funding policy; we do not, and will not, promote tobacco or smoking through our research and teaching, nor do we accept financing from or invest in tobacco companies.
La Trobe was recently a founding signatory and the first university to sign up to the world’s first Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge, whose aim is to ‘de-normalise’ tobacco by ending all business and financial ties with the industry and reduce the annual death toll of 7 million who die from preventable, tobacco-related illnesses.
La Trobe Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar
ENDS
Background
Researchers from La Trobe University are part of group of leading Australian researchers who have stated they will not accept any funding or support from the tobacco industry-funded Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.
The statement was published today in an Editorial in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, with La Trobe Associate Professor Catherine Chamberlain one of the authors.
This follows similar statements from Australian and international public health institutions.
The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris International.
The Editorial is available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12861 (HTML) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1753-6405.12861 (PDF)
Read the media release from the Menzies School of Health Research about the Editorial.
Media Contact (La Trobe): Claire Bowers – c.bowers@latrobe.edu.au - 9479 2315 / 0437 279 903
Media contact (Menzies School of Health Sciences): Paul Dale – communications@menzies.edu.au. (08) 8946 8658 / 0439 108 754