Bloomberg Philanthropies Announces Additional $220 Million To Fight Global Tobacco Use
Michael R. Bloomberg announced today that he will commit an additional $220 million to fight tobacco use around the world through the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. The CDC Foundation is one of five partner organizations involved in the Initiative.
In the global fight against tobacco use, data is an important weapon. As a partner in the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, the CDC Foundation enables the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to work with countries around the world to collect data about adult tobacco use. The Foundation has successfully coordinated completion of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) in more than a dozen countries, representing 675 million of the world's smokers. By the end of 2012, a total of approximately 20 countries will have completed surveys.
The announcement of Bloomberg's commitment to the Initiative for the next four years is exciting news. The renewed supported will enable the CDC Foundation and CDC to continue to work with countries to monitor adult tobacco use, exposure to secondhand smoke, quit attempts and other tobacco-related beliefs and behaviors. Repeating the survey over time allows countries to track the effectiveness of tobacco control measures and to direct resources to the most effective programs and policies.
The survey is conducted through face-to-face interviews using electronic data collection. The first implementation phase of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey was conducted in nearly 40 languages and dialects and involved 4,300 trained fieldworkers.
We are incredibly grateful for Mayor Bloomberg's generosity and are honored to be working with CDC and Initiative partner organizations: the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the World Health Organization and the World Lung Foundation. The Initiative is perfect example of how public and private sector organizations, working together, can save lives.