Like electric cars and clean energy, e-cigarettes improve on an old, dirty technology

Yet they are opposed by so-called public interest groups

When big automakers shift from making polluting, gasoline-burning cars to cleaner electric vehicles, they’re cheered.

Similarly, fossil-fuel companies are praised when invest in solar or wind power to help drive the transition to renewable energy.

Yet when tobacco companies develop safer ways to deliver nicotine–a concept known as tobacco harm reduction– they are denigrated and demonized by nonprofits that purport to care about public health.

This makes no sense.

Consider the unfortunate story of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. Created in 2017 by global tobacco giant Philip Morris International, the foundation researches and supports safer alternatives to combustible cigarettes, among other things. The foundation was denounced by mainstream tobacco-control groups as an industry front the moment it opened its doors. Those who accepted the foundation’s money were barred from attending academic meetings or publishing in academic journals. Derek Yach, its first president, became persona non grata in the world of tobacco control.