Advocates urge UN body to shut door on Big Tobacco

GENEVA (AP) — Opponents of Big Tobacco say a decision by the International Labor Organization to stop accepting funds from the industry is a step in the right direction, but are urging the U.N.-backed agency to go further and "completely shut the door."

On Thursday, the ILO agreed not to renew a contract with Japan Tobacco International next month — a decision that ended, for now, the influence of the tobacco industry in the last U.N. institution to which it had links.

Mafoya Dossoumon, spokesman for the Framework Convention Alliance, which unites some 500 anti-tobacco industry groups, says the ILO move was a "good thing."

However, he said Friday his group wanted more clarity about ILO plans to enact "appropriate safeguards" about its funding sources, and cautioned it's possible Big Tobacco could return.

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