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** 15 May 2023
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** UK
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** Single-use vapes sparking surge in fires at UK waste plants (#1)
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** Tory MP Adam Afriyie who repeatedly promoted vaping didn’t declare wife’s shares in vape retailer (#2)
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** Opinion: Britain must stand up to the WHO on vaping to save millions of lives (#3)
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** Babies are dying because of NHS failings, poverty and inequality, charities warn (#4)
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** UK
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** Single-use vapes sparking surge in fires at UK waste plants
Disposable vapes are behind a dramatic rise in fires at recycling plants over the last year, raising the risk of a major blaze releasing toxic fumes and polluting air, industry experts warn.
Research by Material Focus, a non-profit organisation which runs the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, found that more than 700 fires in bin lorries and recycling centres were caused by batteries that had been dumped into general waste.
Justin Guest, co-founder of Archipelago Eco, which invests in recycling technology, said that banning vapes would be “a blunt instrument”, adding: “It doesn’t solve the problem because it’s not just vapes – there are batteries in so many things now. People will always get stuff and throw it away.”
“There will be some other consumer craze that comes along and these materials will always find their way into the waste stream. So you need safeguards, and you need technology to solve that problem.”
About 138m single-use vapes are now sold in the UK each year, containing enough lithium for about 1,200 electric vehicle batteries.
Source: The Guardian, 13 May 2023
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** Tory MP Adam Afriyie who repeatedly promoted vaping didn’t declare wife’s shares in vape retailer
A Conservative MP has been accused of breaching lobbying rules after he pushed ministers to put vaping at the heart of the UK’s anti-smoking drive without declaring that his family stands to profit from disposable vapes, the i can reveal.
Adam Afriyie, the Tory MP for Windsor, has spoken out in the House of Commons on numerous occasions about the benefits of vaping as a tool to quit smoking.
He is also vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Vaping, which lobbied the Government in the run-up to its announcement last month that vapes will play a crucial role in the UK’s new anti-smoking drive.
However, the i can reveal that Mr Afriyie’s wife is a shareholder in a firm that sells disposable vapes, with Labour describing the revelation as a “lobbying scandal” as it called for a ban on MPs acting as lobbyists.
Mr Afriyie is the chair of Elite Growth, a medical cannabis firm that sells disposable vapes, in an unpaid role that he initially failed to declare in his financial interests. The Tory MP has since declared the role after he was accused of lobbying Parliament about the benefits of cannabis-related products in December 2021.
But he has not declared publicly that his wife, Tracy-Jane Afriyie, is also a shareholder in Elite Growth, which has described the vaping sector as an area of “huge growth potential” for the company.
The i can also reveal that Mr Afriyie received a donation worth £10,338 to cover the expenses for a three-day visit to speak at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) in Washington last September.
The Tory MP told industry leaders at the GTNF’s annual conference, whose members include Big Tobacco giants British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands and Philip Morris International, that “Britain is open for business”.
Source: The i, 12 May 2023
Editorial note: Adam Afriyie MP does not hold currently hold a role in the UK Government and does not represent them on this issue.
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** Opinion: Britain must stand up to the WHO on vaping to save millions of lives
Writing in the Express, backbench MPs Andrew Lewer and Mary Glindon, vice-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for vaping discuss the benefits of e-cigarettes and criticise the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) stance on vaping.
The authors welcome the announcement made by the public health minister earlier this month which “reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to vaping as a way of achieving the UK’s ambitions for a smoke-free future by 2030.”
However, Lewer and Glindon write that to achieve smokefree 2030 (defined as smoking prevalence of less than 5%) we should ensure that those who take a different stance on e-cigarettes are not allowed to sway policy in the UK. The authors point to the WHO, who will be holding the 10th conference of its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The authors claim that WHO is “rabidly anti-vaping” and criticise the influence of the US philanthropist Michael Bloomberg.
Lewer and Glindon question whether the UK should continue to fund the FCTC if the WHO continues to oppose the use of vaping as a stop smoking aid.
Editorial note: The authors of this article are vice-chairs of the APPG for Vaping, a group of backbench MPs and peers. The views presented in this article do not represent the UK Government nor the wider public health consensus in the UK which strongly supports the FCTC. In 2019 the APPG was criticised for taking funding from the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), which has tobacco industry groups as members and on its board. See the Tobacco Tactics page on the APPG for Vaping for more information on this group.
Source: The Express, 25 April 2023
See also: Tobacco Tactics - All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Vaping ([link removed])
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** Babies are dying because of NHS failings, poverty and inequality, charities warn
Hundreds of babies are dying unnecessarily because overstretched maternity services are delivering substandard care and struggling to overcome entrenched poverty and racial inequalities, a report has warned.
The report by baby loss charities Sands and Tommy’s, which was published today, says the government’s aim to halve the number of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in England by 2025 is stalling, while there is no target in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Stillbirths are creeping up in England after falling in the past decade. Babies dying before and during delivery rose to just over four in every 1,000 births in 2021. Similarly, long-falling rates of neonatal deaths, where newborns die within the first four weeks of birth, are also rising. There were 1.4 deaths of newborn babies for every 1,000 births in 2021, compared with 1.3 in 2020.
The report says staff are working in an increasingly under-resourced and overstretched system. Nearly 40% of English maternity services are classed as inadequate or requiring improvement, while staff surveys show 84% of midwives believe higher staffing levels are needed to do their jobs safely. Patients have also reported worsening experiences of maternity services since 2019.
The charities warn that national standards of care are too often not followed. NHS figures reveal that 40% of expectant mothers do not receive their first antenatal assessment within 10 weeks, where advice on folic acid supplements and stopping smoking are provided to bolster the health of the mother and baby.
Inequalities have changed little, and the difference in stillbirth rates between those living in the least and most deprived areas have increased since 2010, the reports says.
In 2020, there were 4.3 stillbirths for every 1,000 births in the most deprived parts of the UK compared with 2.6 in the least deprived areas. The report notes that around 500 babies would survive if stillbirth rates in deprived areas fell to match wealthy areas. Black babies are still more than twice as likely to be stillborn as white babies.
Source: The Guardian, 14 May 2023
See also: Sands - Inaction is costing babies’ lives report ([link removed])
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