|
|
|
|
Doug Naysmith, MP who campaigned successfully to have smoking banned in public places – obituary
Doug Naysmith, who has died aged 82, was a bearded Scottish immunologist who as Labour and Co-Operative MP for Bristol North West from 1997 to 2010 took a leading role in Parliament’s handling of health and science issues.
Naysmith was co-chair of Labour’s backbench health committee and a driving force within the Health Select Committee. His own proudest moment came in 2007 when the Government banned smoking in public places, in good measure as a result of his campaigning.
A long-standing member of the Socialist Health Association and a Fellow of the Royal College of Medicine, he was also chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, secretary of the Parliamentary Universities Group and president of the Dementia Care Trust.
Naysmith’s political career did not end when he left the Commons. He immediately sought a return to the city council, serving on Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston council until 2014, bringing his total service on Bristol city council to 21 years either side of his time in parliament.
Source: The Telegraph, 9 July 2023
Editorial Note: Doug Naysmith was an active member of the Health Select Committee in a first for a Select Committee tabled all-party amendments removing the exemptions to the smoking ban in the Health Bill 2005 for licensed premises and private members clubs. The amendments were passed on a free vote by a majority of 200, paving the way for implementation of comprehensive smokefree laws in England in 2007
|
|
More than 100,000 young London teenagers have vaped amid calls for ban on colourful packaging
The latest data from the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use survey estimates that 15 per cent of children aged between 11 and 15 in the capital had used an e-cigarette in 2021, amounting to 100,000 young people.
While it is less harmful than smoking, vaping still carries a health risk and it is not recommended for children and non-smokers.
Labour's Shadow Public Health Minister Andrew Gwynne said: “We cannot allow a new generation of kids to get hooked on nicotine.
“Vapes are a stop smoking tool for adults, they aren't for kids. It's shameful that the Government is allowing vaping companies to profit by targeting children with their addictive substances.’’
Source: Evening Standard 12 July
|
|
MPs slam Blackburn Rovers for accepting sponsorship from vaping companies
MPs have voiced their criticism of Blackburn Rovers and other sports teams for promoting vape companies through sponsorship deals.
The Championship team prominently displays the logo of vaping brand Totally Wicked on its shirt. Last month, the club and the vape company announced that they would continue their partnership for a sixth season.
During yesterday’s Commons children and vaping, concern was expressed about children being inappropriately exposed to e-cigarette promotions and called for a ban on vapes being branded and advertised to appeal to children.
Speaking from the SNP frontbench, Kirsten Oswald stated that it would be unacceptable if a football club had cigarette branding on their shirts, and she questioned why vaping advertising should be any more acceptable.
Steve Brine, a former health minister, called on Blackburn Rovers to reflect on their decision and emphasised that both the club and the company are responsible.
Source: Manchester Evening News, 12 July 2023
|
|
NHS workforce plan ‘aspirational’ but lacking detail, says nurse leader
At a session of the UK Health and Social Care Committee held yesterday, leading figures representing nurses, doctors and health trusts were asked their thoughts on the workforce plan.
Patricia Marquis, England director for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), told committee chair Steve Brine that pay “has to be there” in any plan for the future of the NHS workforce.
Ms Marquis said the plan was full of “good aspirations”, but that it was lacking detail, particularly around retention and how ambitious targets to increase student nurse numbers would be achieved.
Ms Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust, also present, backed that the workforce plan was a “missed opportunity” to incorporate social care.
She continued “What is missing, too, is accountability for the delivery of the plan more broadly.
“We have this national plan, but it’s not clear on who is responsible. It pushes much of it down to integrated care boards, which is probably good in most cases, but a lot of the things which the plan says needs to happen isn’t within their control.”
Source: Nursing Times 12 July 2023
|
|
Researchers receive $3.9 million grant to evaluate effects of e-cigarette flavours on smoking behaviours
A new $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow researchers with the Center for Tobacco Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center to evaluate effects of e-cigarette flavors on the smoking behaviors of current adult smokers.
The study will increase understanding about the impact of non-tobacco e-cigarette flavors for helping adult smokers stop smoking.
Theodore Wagener, co-leader of the study, says "the FDA must decide how to balance its goals of protecting young people and offering harm-reduction options to adults. This new trial will generate critical data to help make more informed public health decisions that have a lasting impact."
The study will look at what impact the availability of multiple flavours of e cigarettes has on product uptake and appeal, cigarette craving, symptoms, dependence and smoking behaviour, including sustained and complete switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes.
"If our study demonstrates no significant improvements in switching with flavored e-cigarette use, then the continued sale of these products is likely indefensible; however, if improvements are significant, these findings will provide a critical counterweight to the current FDA regulations and will aid future decision making," Wagener said.
Source: News Medical, 12 July 2023
|
|
The debate was opened by Andrew Gwynne MP, Labour Shadow Public Health Minister, followed by Neil O’Brien MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Primary Care and Public Health. Helen Hayes MP Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years wound up the debate for the Opposition, followed by Maria Caulfield MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Primary Care and Public Health.
The debate started at 4pm and finished at 7pm.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House is concerned that children are being inappropriately exposed to e-cigarette promotions and that under-age vaping has increased by 50% in just the last three years; condemns the Government for its failure to act to protect children by voting against the addition of measures to prohibit branding which is appealing to children on e-cigarette packaging during the passage of the Health and Care Act 2022 and for failing to bring forward the tobacco control plan that it promised by the end of 2021; and therefore calls on the Government to ban vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children and to work with local councils and the NHS to help ensure that e-cigarettes are being used as an aid to stop smoking, rather than as a new form of smoking.
Source: Hansard, 12 July 2023
|
|
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here.
For more information email [email protected] or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
