He has called tobacco a "dangerous drug" and the single most preventable cause of bad health and death in Australia.

So why does Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull still have a financial stake in two of the world's biggest tobacco companies, 18 months after he promised to snuff out out his sharemarket exposure to cigarettes?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has shares in funds that invest in cigarette companies. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

According to his recently released pecuniary interests register, Mr Turnbull has shares in three funds that invest in tobacco.

One is a European fund that invests in British American Tobacco and the others are Japanese funds with shares in Japan Tobacco – the third and fourth-largest tobacco companies by market share in the world.