About the Authors

Heide Weishaar

h.b.weishaar@sms.ed.ac.uk

Affiliation Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Jeff Collin

Affiliation Global Public Health Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Katherine Smith

Affiliation Global Public Health Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Thilo Grüning

Affiliation Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom

Sema Mandal

Affiliation Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom

Anna Gilmore

Affiliation Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

JC and AG were both part of a WHO Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) Expert Committee convened to develop recommendations on how to address tobacco industry interference with tobacco control policy, and as such their travel to a meeting in Washington DC was reimbursed by WHO TFI. All other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JC AG. Performed the experiments: HW KES TG SM. Analyzed the data: HW JC KES TG SM AG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JC AG KES. Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: HW. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: JC KES TG AG. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: HW JC KES TG SM AG. Agree with manuscript results and conclusions: HW JC KES TG SM AG.