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** 12 June 2023
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** UK
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** Health charity calls for increased funding for smokefree policies (#1)
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** British American Tobacco boss Jack Bowles paid £2.9m after surprise exit (#2)
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** Instagram influencers advertising nicotine products to young people, charity warns (#3)
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** Glastonbury tells festivalgoers not to bring disposable vapes (#4)
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** UK
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A year on from the publication of Javed Khan’s independent report, setting out his recommendations for how to make smoking obsolete, campaigners said the government has found less than a quarter of the investment Khan said was critical, and only partially implemented his recommendations.
The report, published by the government on [9 June] last year, suggested to urgently increase comprehensive investment in smokefree 2030 policies by an additional £125 million per year. The report added that, if government could not find the funding needed, the tobacco manufacturers should be made to pay.
Results from a survey of over 12,000 adults in Britain published today by the health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) showed that the public support more action on tobacco and more than three quarters (77%) think that the tobacco manufacturers should be made to pay (6% oppose). This includes the overwhelming majority of those surveyed who voted for the three largest political parties at the 2019 general election (Conservative 75%, Labour 82%, Liberal Democrats 87%).
There is overwhelming public support, and little opposition, for a wide range of policies, including licences for businesses selling tobacco (83%) putting health warnings on cigarettes (66% support 10% oppose) and banning smoking in all cars (66% support, 16% oppose).
Nearly two thirds (64%) support raising the age of sale from 18 to 21 (65% Conservative, 66% Labour and 67% Liberal Democrat voters surveyed). Half all adults support Khan’s preferred option of raising the age of sale one year every year (50%) with a quarter (25%) opposed.
Three quarters of the public support the smokefree 2030 ambition (75%, 7% oppose). However, updated analysis by Cancer Research UK shows that since the Khan review was published last June we’ve slipped another two years of track, and England won’t be smokefree until 2039.
“The overwhelming majority of the public support the Smokefree 2030 ambition. Making the tobacco manufacturers pay for the measures needed to deliver is just as popular, including supporters of all the main British political parties (75% of those who voted Conservative at the last election, 82% who voted Labour and 87% Liberal Democrat),” Deborah Arnott, ASH chief executive said.
“It is time for politicians to listen to the public, and deliver what the voters want.”
Source: Asian Trader, 9 June 2023
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The former boss of British American Tobacco is to receive a lump-sum £1.5 million pension payment as part of his exit from the cigarette company. Jack Bowles, 59, stepped down as chief executive of the maker of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes with immediate effect last month in an unexpected exit after four years in the role and was replaced by Tadeu Marroco, 57, BAT’s group finance director.
The details of Bowles’s exit pay have since been disclosed and show he will receive the one-off pension payment under the company’s unfunded unapproved retirement benefits scheme. Bowles, who was the shortest-serving boss of the three chief executives and one executive chairman the company has had since 1998, will also receive a £1.4 million payment in lieu of notice equivalent to 12 months’ salary. He will continue to receive benefits, such as medical insurance, until the end of his 12-month notice period.
Bowles was appointed chief executive in April 2019, having joined the group in 2004, and his strategy centred on raising sales of non-combustible e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn devices. He said last month that it was “now the time for a change of leadership to take the business to the next level”.
His departure came weeks after BAT agreed to pay $635 million to the US authorities to settle alleged sanctions busting in North Korea, but is said to be unrelated.
Source: The Times, 12 June 2023
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Highly addictive nicotine products are being advertised to young people by influencers on social media, a charity has warned. Velo nicotine pouches, small white bags that people put under their lips, are being pushed by British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the biggest tobacco firms in the world. Since the Guardian raised the issue with Instagram, the social media company owned by Facebook, has removed the content.
Analysis of a social media campaign by BAT to promote Velo pouches, conducted between January and May this year by the nonprofit group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, shows that more than a quarter of their social media audience was between 12 and 24 years old. Eleven influencers published 48 posts to an audience of more than 1.4 million people – the majority of whom were in the UK. According to Klear, a social listening platform that analyses influencer audiences, 28% of the audience viewing this content was under 24.
Facebook and Instagram outlaw adverts promoting the sale or use of tobacco or nicotine “unless they are cessation products”. The policy prohibits “tobacco products, vaporisers, electronic cigarettes, or any other products that simulate smoking”.
Caroline Renzulli, international communications officer for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the marketing was “totally absurd” for portraying Velo as a “cool lifestyle product that you should try out even if you’re not a smoker”.
Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “The government’s approach to regulating nicotine-containing products is not keeping pace with industry innovation. Vaping products with wide appeal to children are highly visible up and down every high street as well as online, nicotine pouches have no age of sale and no restrictions on their advertising or promotion. These products are less harmful than smoking, but they still contain an addictive substance, nicotine, and should be appropriately regulated. The government must move with the times.”
Source: The Guardian, 12 June 2023
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People heading to Glastonbury festival this month have been urged by organisers not to bring disposable vapes to the event. Some estimates suggest about 1.3m disposable vapes are thrown away each week in the UK.
The organisers of Glastonbury festival, which takes place from Wednesday 21 to Sunday 25 June at Worthy Farm in Somerset, have added disposable vapes to a list of items not to bring, which also includes knives, gazebos and non-biodegradable body glitter. Of disposable vapes, the website says: “They pollute the environment and can be hazardous at waste centers (sic).”
Source: The Guardian, 9 June 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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