How a debate over vaping might derail the war on tobacco

Anti-smoking groups aren’t just fighting the tobacco companies these days

Cliff Douglas fought the tobacco industry for decades. As a lawyer, activist, and executive at nonprofit organizations, he sued cigarette makers, cultivated whistleblowers, and led the campaign to ban smoking on airlines.

Which is why allies in the anti-smoking movement were surprised when in October he became CEO of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, a nonprofit created and entirely funded by Philip Morris International, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies.

Douglas, who previously worked for the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, sees his new job as the continuation of his anti-smoking work. He joined the foundation only after its board agreed to make a clean break from Philip Morris. He wants to bring together foundations, nonprofits, public health experts, elected officials, regulators, and academics in a renewed effort to curb death and disease caused by smoking.

It won’t be easy. Because anti-smoking groups aren’t just fighting the tobacco companies these days. They’re fighting, sometimes bitterly, among themselves.

“I’m under no illusions about the challenges,” Douglas says.