View this email in your browser ([link removed])


** 23 June 2023
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


** Opinion: Vaping among schoolchildren has become a moral panic in Britain (#1)
------------------------------------------------------------


** King's Birthday Honours: Harrow East MP Bob Blackman gets CBE (#2)
------------------------------------------------------------


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


** US e-cigarette sales jumped from 2020 to 2022 (#3)
------------------------------------------------------------


** Links of the week
------------------------------------------------------------


** ASH Wales is recruiting (#4)
------------------------------------------------------------


** Prevention is the new cure podcast: episode 8 (#5)
------------------------------------------------------------


** E-cigarettes and the Comparative Politics of Harm Reduction available online (#6)
------------------------------------------------------------


** Smoking at Time of Delivery data for 2022/23 (#7)
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


** Opinion: Vaping among schoolchildren has become a moral panic in Britain

This opinion piece in the Economist discusses rising rates of youth vaping. Although selling vapes to under 18s is illegal, data from 2021 suggests that 9% of students in secondary schools are regular or occasional vapers, up from 6% three years prior. This increase coincides with an increased availability of disposable e-cigarettes which come in bright colours and fruity flavours.

The author states that it would be better if children and never-smokers did not vape as the long term effects of e-cigarette use is still unknown. Vaping may be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who have never vaped or smoked. Additionally, illegal vapes can also contain high levels of nickel and lead.

However, the author argues talk of a vaping epidemic is “misplaced”. Smoking of regular tobacco cigarettes in this age group has declined and only 3% of secondary school students report that they are regular smoker. 12% of secondary school students say they have tried smoking, compared to half in the 1990s. The author highlights the significant decline in annual sales of cigarettes from 38bn to 20bn over the last decade and argues that “Speeding that decline by getting remaining smokers, some 13% of the total population, to switch to vapes is smart.”

The author goes on to discuss the potential banning of fruity flavours, saying that a government review of vaping was unable to conclude whether banning sweet flavours would discourage young vapers and could instead push them into buying illegal vapes.

The author concludes by calling for excise tax on disposables to make them pricier and push them out of the price range of children. Cracking down on shops that sell vapes to children would also be beneficial, although here the author writes that the focus should be on alcohol. Hospitals in England admitted 46 children for vaping-related reasons in 2022 compared to the 5,010 under 16s admitted due to alcohol related reasons in 2018-2019 - around 6% of secondary students drink alcohol weekly.

Source: The Economist, 22 June 2023

See also: ASH – Response to government youth vaping consultation ([link removed]) | ASH – 2023 youth vaping data ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])


** King's Birthday Honours: Harrow East MP Bob Blackman gets CBE

Harrow East MP Bob Blackman has been awarded a CBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list.

Mr Blackman was elected as a Conservative MP in 2010, following 24 years as a councillor, including stints as Brent Council leader from 1990-96 and as the Brent and Harrow member of the London Assembly between 2004-2008.

Mr Blackman said he is “really pleased” with the honour, a “very good celebration of rather a long time in politics - and still more to come.”

In 2016, he tabled the Homelessness Reduction Bill with homelessness charity Crisis - his first Private Member’s Bill. Mr Blackman describes it as his “proudest” moment in politics. He said: “Prior to the bill, local authorities had no duty whatsoever to help single people that were threatened with being homeless or were actually homeless.”

It’s a double celebration for Mr Blackman this weekend, after his second Private Member’s Bill passed its third House of Lords reading today (June 16).

The bill on “supported housing exempt accommodation” is designed to “help vulnerable people with mental or physical health problems, leaving prison, or leaving the armed forces, that are being exploited by rogue landlords who don't provide any care and just charge any rent they like.”

An “avid anti-smoker,” Mr Blackman was elected in 2015 as chair of the All Party Political Group on Smoking and Health.

He criticised the “scant action” from the Department of Health and Social Care, following a review published last year on achieving a smoke-free UK by 2030.

“We're going to be pressing the government to do more because otherwise we're going to miss the target. More people will die of mouth, throat or lung cancer as a result of being addicted to tobacco."

When asked how long he would like to remain an MP, he said: “I will always say the same thing to anyone: that you take each election as it comes. But he hopes to stay on until 2024.

“It’s up to the electorate. I’ve been re-adopted for the next general election.”

Source: The Harrow Times, 16 June 2023
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


** US e-cigarette sales jumped from 2020 to 2022

E-cigarette sales in the United States spiked between 2020 and 2022, especially among flavors that appeal to youth users, according to a study from health authorities released Thursday.

Overall e-cigarette monthly unit sales went up nearly 47 percent from the start of 2020 to the end of 2022, a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

In January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, 15.5 million e-cigarettes were sold, while 22.7 million units were sold in December 2022, the study said.

"After January 2020, sales of mint and other flavored prefilled cartridges ceased, and disposable e-cigarettes in fruit, sweet, and other flavors increased," the study, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, showed.

"Disposable e-cigarettes in youth-appealing flavours are now more commonly sold than prefilled units," it noted.

E-cigarettes were introduced in the early 2000s as a less-harmful replacement for regular cigarettes, which are packed with cancer-causing chemicals.

The two-year increase has come despite the US Food and Drug Administration's 2020 announcement that it would prioritise enforcing rules against unauthorized flavoured vaping products, given their appeal to teenagers and children.

Earlier this year, e-cigarette company Juul agreed to pay $462 million to six states and the District of Columbia to settle charges that it violated numerous laws in marketing tobacco products to youth.

Though e-cigarette use has increased in the United States in recent years, traditional cigarette smoking has reached an all-time low of about 11 percent among adults in 2022, according to CDC data released in April.

Source: The Medical Xpress, 22 June 2023

See also: CDC- E-cigarette Unit Sales by Product and Flavor Type, United States, 2020–2022 ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])


** Links of the week
------------------------------------------------------------


** ASH Wales is recruiting

ASH Wales is recruiting for a new head of policy. You can find out more about the role and how to apply here ([link removed]) .
------------------------------------------------------------
Read More Here ([link removed])


** Prevention is the new cure podcast: episode 8

Episode 8 of the ‘Prevention is the new cure’ podcast sees Steve Barclay, Chair of the Health Select Committee and Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, discuss youth vaping and talk about Action on Smoking and Health’s response to the government call for evidence on youth vaping. You can listen here ([link removed]) from 7:10.
------------------------------------------------------------
Listen Here ([link removed])


** E-cigarettes and the Comparative Politics of Harm Reduction

This book offers the first in-depth study of the history underlying the current debate over electronic cigarettes. It explores how the US, UK and Australia frame the long-term use of nicotine differently.
It is freely available online here ([link removed]) .

------------------------------------------------------------
Read here ([link removed])


** Smoking at Time of Delivery data for 2022/23

The 2022/23 Q4 and annual smoking at time of delivery (SATOD) statistics have been published today. Below is a summary of the key information.

Despite progress with SATOD rates over the last 5 years, this has not been sufficient to achieve the ambition set out in the previous Tobacco Control Plan for England to reach 6% SATOD by 2022. Based on the current rate of decline, the 6% ambition will not be reached nationally until around 2032, a decade later than planned.

The Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group has called on the Government to publish a new Tobacco Control Plan, with specific measures to address smoking during pregnancy. The press release is available here: Government set to miss smoking in pregnancy target by nearly a decade, charities warn ([link removed])

The SATOD data can be found here: Statistics on Women's Smoking Status at Time of Delivery: England, Quarter 4, 2022-23 - NHSD (digital.nhs.uk) ([link removed])

Key points

• 8.8% of women were smokers at time of delivery in 2022/23. This is a small decrease from 2021/22 (9.1%), but significantly above the national ambition of 6% or less.
• The percentage of women recorded as smoking at time of delivery for Quarter 4 specifically (Jan-March) is 8.7%. This is a small increase from the 8.6% in the previous period (Quarter 3, Oct–Dec).
• There continues to be large geographic variation on this indicator.
• 11 out of 106 submitting Sub-ICB’s met the national ambition of 6% or less in Quarter 4 2022/23.
------------------------------------------------------------
Read here ([link removed])
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here. ([link removed])

For more information email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk ([link removed])

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.

============================================================
Our mailing address is:
Action on Smoking and Health
Unit 2.9, The Foundry
17 Oval Way
London
SE11 5RR

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])