Almost a year ago today, Vital Strategies launched Vital Talks, a speaker series that brings together top experts in health and development to examine the greatest public health challenges of our time. The idea was simple: offer a forum where public health leaders can discuss pressing public health issues, learn about new strategies from around the world, share new evidence, and explore opportunities to improve health and save lives.
As one of the events in this series, this coming Wednesday, we are proud to host a discussion on the rise of e-cigarette use and the implications for health and tobacco control around the world.
As registrations for our event started coming in last week, we noticed several from members of the tobacco industry.
Today, we let those industry representatives know that they will not be welcome at our event.
Let us be clear: There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict of interest between public health and the tobacco industry. And as an organization whose mission is to ensure everyone is protected by a strong public health system, we at Vital Strategies align ourselves with the World Health Organization, governments around the world, and the global health community in upholding a firm non-engagement policy with the tobacco industry.
Learn more about our work in tobacco control.