In a world filled with grand conspiracy theories, it can be difficult to nail down a proper villain. After all, there’s no shortage of bad actors. But when it comes to the war on vaping there’s really only one, the billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
In this special series of RegWatch, we explore how Bloomberg uses his power and money to backstop a tangled web of philanthropic organizations who cajole, strong-arm or
buy-off governments of low and middle-income countries so that they would implement harsh restrictions, taxes, and even bans on low-risk nicotine products, such as
vaping.