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CHAPMAN: International tobacco control should repudiate Jekyll and Hyde health philanthropy  

The founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, famously said "...take the Devil's money, wash it in the Blood of the Lamb, and use it to save a dying world". Booth thus opened the door for people of goodwill to take money for noble works from assorted devils. . . .

So what should global tobacco control workers make of the world's richest man,1 Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú, pouring rivers of money into health, education and poverty charities in Latin America? Slim announced last year that he will expand the endowment of his foundations, such as the Carso Foundation, to US$10 billion over the next 4 years, up from US$4 billion, and will dedicate himself more to philanthropy. Slim set up the Carso Health Institute initially endowed with US$500 million and nominated Dr Julio Frenk (former Ministry of Health in Mexico and former candidate for WHO's director general position) for the Institute's executive director position.2 . . .

There is now a conga line of health and poverty relief agencies and researchers applauding Slim's philanthropy and hoping to get in on the action. Business philanthropy is to be applauded but when a philanthropist's day job is a major contributor to the death and disease that his generosity in part seeks to redress, it is time for all self-respecting agencies to make a stand and refuse to have anything to do with it.

Although most known for his telecommunications business, Group Carso, which he controls, Slim owns many other businesses including until recently a majority ownership of Cigatam, Mexico's largest tobacco company. Cigarros la Tabacalera Mexicana (Cigatam) was majority owned by the Carso Group (Philip Morris Mexico owns the other half (49.9%)). In July 2007 Philip Morris International (PMI) announced an agreement to buy an additional 30% of shares

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