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Ban smoking and tax orange juice, says George Osborne
Calling for sweeping public health interventions to reduce obesity and cancer, the former chancellor insisted that “anti-nanny state Conservatives” are “not worth listening to”.
He told The Times Health Commission that Britain should look at “the long-term legality of smoking” and follow the lead of New Zealand in gradually raising the legal age of tobacco.
Osborne said: “You basically phase it out. Of course you’re going to have lots of problems with illegal smoking, but you have lots of problems with other illegal activities. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and ban them and police them and make it less readily available. I thought that was a compelling public health intervention.”
Last year New Zealand became the first country to pass a historic anti-smoking bill, which prevents cigarettes being sold to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009.
Public health experts and charities have been calling for the UK to introduce a similar law, so that younger generations are never able to smoke legally.
But ministers ruled this out last month, saying imposing blanket bans is at odds with the government’s current policy which “emphasises personal responsibility”.
Latest data shows 13.3 per cent of the population smoked in 2021 — around 6.6 million people. In 2019 the government set a target for the UK to become “smokefree” by 2030, defined as less than 5 per cent of the population smoking.
An independent review led by Dr Javed Khan last year said tougher restrictions — including raising the legal age — will be needed to achieve this.
Source: The Times, 2 May 2023
See also: The Khan review - making smoking obsolete
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The FT view: The sweet-tasting allure of the vape
The FT editorial board sets out the FT view on vaping and argues that e-cigarettes should be tightly controlled to reduce youth use, but not banned.
The authors write that vapes, through their fruity colours and prominence on social media platforms such as TikTok, are very popular among teenagers and studies have shown that their use among this demographic has increased over the last few years. However, research has shown that vapes pose a fraction of the risk that cigarettes do and are an effective smoking cessation aid. This, the authors write, results in a balancing act for the government: ensuring they are readily available to adults who wish to quit smoking whilst keeping them out of the hands of children.
The UK government has promoted vaping as a means of reducing smoking prevalence but has now launched a call for evidence into youth vaping to try and curb the underage use. One method, the board writes, is to ban vapes altogether. This has been done in Mexico and India, but the writers point to claims that even banning fruity flavoured vapes can push ex-smokers who are drawn to the fruity flavours back to smoking.
The authors add that plain packaging and point-of-sale restrictions could also work in making vapes less attractive to children but given that many children are exposed to user-generated, vaping-related content on social media platforms this tactic might be less effective than it was for cigarettes.
Lastly, the authors writes that taxation has a role to play. Imposing a tax on vapes would make them less affordable for children whilst keeping them affordable for adults who use them as a smoking cessation device.
Source: The Financial Times, 28 April 2023
See also: ASH – Resources on youth vaping | OHID – 2022 evidence update of nicotine vaping
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Northern Island: Over three million illegal cigarettes worth £2m seized
Over three million illegal cigarettes and tobacco worth an estimated £2m in duty and taxes have been seized in Co Tyrone.
A 70-year-old man in Coalisland has been arrested and subsequently released on bail following the seizure by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers and police.
Lucie Irving, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: “The trade in illicit cigarettes and tobacco damages funding for essential public services and undermines legitimate traders including small, independent shops that serve local communities.”
Source: Belfast Telegraph, 3 May 2023
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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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