Gates, Bloomberg pool riches to fight smoking

• IBTimes RSS
• Print
• E-Mail
• digg
• Del.icio.us

When Bloomberg first announced that $125 million gift, he said at the time that he believed smoking was a public health issue that was largely ignored by philanthropists. He said he hoped publicizing it would bring more attention from other major foundations.

Gates said Wednesday that $24 million of his gift will go directly toward Bloomberg's efforts that are already under way.

The remaining money will be used by his foundation to begin its own anti-tobacco work, including a focus on preventing tobacco use from increasing in Africa.

"The epidemic in Africa is not well advanced, and that means that we can catch it at an early stage," Gates said.

• 1
• 2