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Smokers in England to be offered vaping kits to help them quit cigarettes
Ministers are to urge 1 million smokers to swap cigarettes for vapes, despite increasing concern about the rise in young people vaping. Under the new “swap to stop” scheme, vape starter kits will be offered to almost one in five of all smokers in England as part of the government’s “smoke free” drive.
Pregnant women will also be offered up to £400 to stop smoking and a consultation will be launched on introducing mandatory advice on quitting smoking to be placed in cigarette packs.
The scheme comes on top of plans to crack down on the illegal sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s. A survey by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) found that vaping among 11- to 17-year-olds has increased from 3.3% in 2021 to 7% last year.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is trying to balance finding ways to cut underage vaping while at the same time ensuring vapes are available to help adult smokers to quit.
The health minister Neil O’Brien will launch the new schemes in a speech later today. “Up to two out of three lifelong smokers will die from smoking. Cigarettes are the only product on sale which will kill you if used correctly,” he is expected to say. “We will offer a million smokers new help to quit. We will be funding a new national ‘swap to stop’ scheme – the first of its kind in the world. We will work with councils and others to offer a million smokers across England a free vaping starter kit.”
As part of the plans a choice of products, strengths and flavours will be on offer to allow adult smokers to find the best alternative for them.
Funding for the £45m schemes over the next two years will come from the DHSC’s budget.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: “Vapes increase smokers’ chances of successfully quitting, as do vouchers for pregnant smokers, so these are welcome steps in the right direction, but they are nowhere near sufficient.”
She said “not enough has changed” since Khan’s report was published and said funding is “desperately needed to reinstate cuts of more than 90% to mass media campaigns.”
“Not to mention the absence of the tougher regulations Khan recommended to raise the age of sale, and reduce the appeal of smoking as well as vaping,” she added.
Source: The Guardian, 11 April 2023
See also: ASH - Response to DHSC press release: "Smokers encouraged to swap cigarettes for vapes in world first scheme" | ASH - Use of e-cigarettes among adults in Great Britain | ASH - Use of e-cigarettes among young people in Great Britain
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Underage vaping to be targeted by UK government’s “enforcement squad”
Ministers are to promise a crackdown on the illegal sale of e-cigarettes to under 18s as they consider stricter rules to tackle underage vaping.
An “illicit vapes enforcement squad”, led by Trading Standards and backed by £3m in funding, will be set up to conduct test purchases and remove banned products from shops and at borders.
The government will also launch a call for evidence to “identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vapes”, according to plans expected to be unveiled this week.
The measures come amid rising concern over youth vaping in Britain, with the latest survey by
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) showing a rise in recent years. In 2022, 7% of 11- to 17-year-olds surveyed said they used vapes, compared with 3.3% in 2021.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said the charity welcomed the government announcement but that more action was needed to “tackle the scourge of youth vaping”. She said: “The call for evidence is all well and good, but we already know the problems that need addressing, and how to address them. Cheap disposable vapes need to be taxed so they can no longer be bought for pocket money prices. And the government needs to regulate to limit where these products can be sold, and prohibit brightly coloured packaging with cartoon characters and names like ‘gummy bears’. There’s no time for delay.”
Source: The Observer, 9 April 2023
See also: ASH - Use of e-cigarettes among young people in Great Britain
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Government retreats from Brexit bill plan to ditch EU laws
Ministers have begun a full-scale retreat over post-Brexit plans to ditch thousands of EU laws by the end of this year, after Tory peers warned they would join a mass cross-party revolt in the House of Lords.
The Observer can reveal that the government has dropped plans to hold the report stage of the Brexiters’ retained EU law bill in the Lords soon after Easter, apparently to prevent a row in the run-up to the local elections on 4 May and to allow it time to consider a list of likely concessions to rebels.
No new dates have been set for the report stage and peers now believe the much-criticised bill could be put back by months and possibly beyond the next general election.
Under the bill’s provisions, more than 4,000 EU laws kept on the UK statute book after Brexit to ensure continuity would be automatically scrapped at the end of this year, unless ministers decided that there should be exemptions.
A key complaint is the way it would cut both houses of parliament out of decisions on which EU laws should be ditched, ceding that power to unelected civil servants and ministers.
Source: The Observer, 9 April 2023
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Three-quarters of women took avoidable health risks before getting pregnant, with more than half conceiving while overweight or obese, study says
Three-quarters of pregnant women took avoidable health risks before expecting a child, a study has revealed. The results come from the first study of health behaviours in every woman in England who became pregnant and was registered by the NHS in a single year.
In total, 74% of expectant mothers had taken at least one preventable risk with their health, which included smoking around the point of conception.
Researchers, who have so far compiled data for 2018-19 only, expect unhealthy behaviours in pregnant women to have remained at a similar rate and hope to publish the most recent statistics this year.
Researchers want GPs and other health professionals to ask women about their plans for pregnancy during appointments and are calling for advertising campaigns to encourage women to start planning a family earlier, when possible.
Less than half of women thinking about getting pregnant or trying to conceive actually prepare for pregnancy, according to a study of 274 women. Meanwhile, an early-day motion, raised by Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh and calling for pre-conception care to be available to everyone, is gathering signatures.
Source: Daily Mail, 11 April 2023
See also: Women's preconception health in England: a report card based on cross- sectional analysis of national maternity services data from 2018/2019
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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