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** 17 July 2023
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** UK
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** Disposable vapes: Councils call for total ban by 2024 (#1)
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** Smokers who get e-cigarette flavour advice more likely to quit, report finds (#2)
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** Betting firm logos shown on TV up to 3,500 times in Premier League matches, study finds (#3)
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** International
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** Stare at smokers to stop them, Hong Kong health chief urges public (#4)
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** UK
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** Disposable vapes: Councils call for total ban by 2024

Disposable vapes cause litter problems, are a fire hazard and appeal too strongly to children, according to local councils in England and Wales.

The Local Government Association (LGA) says 1.3m vapes are thrown away each week and wants them banned by 2024. Single use varieties have surged in popularity, driven by Chinese brands such as Elfbar and Lost Mary.

Disposable vapes offer a few hundred puffs of nicotine-containing vapour, often with an added flavour of fruit or sweets, in bright plastic packaging – which are thrown away when empty. They are easier to use than conventional vapes, or e-cigarettes, which need to be refilled with pods or liquid.

Disposable ones also contain a small lithium battery, which can increase in temperature when crushed, causing fires in bin lorries, the Local Government Association (LGA) warns.

Councillor David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Disposable vapes are fundamentally flawed in their design and inherently unsustainable products, meaning an outright ban will prove more effective than attempts to recycle more vapes.”

Councils are not against vaping altogether as they believe vapes are less harmful than tobacco and can help smokers to quit.

The anti-smoking charity ASH said it did not support a ban, as it would "turbo-charge" illegal sales, increasing the risk that children would be able to buy them. It favours higher taxes on disposables and stronger controls on import and sales, deputy chief executive Hazel Cheeseman said.

Source: BBC news, 15 July 2023
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** Editorial Note: In response to the LGA call to ban disposable vapes, Hazel Cheeseman, Deputy Chief Executive of ASH said “ASH is sympathetic to calls by the LGA and others to ban single-use disposable e-cigarettes, but the risk of unintended consequences is too great for us to support a ban. Children already find it easy to get hold of illegal vapes, as those selling them have no qualms selling to children, making them all illegal won’t help. The sale of illegal disposable vapes, already large and growing, will be turbo-charged if they are banned. Illegal vapes go under the regulatory radar, they’ve been found to contain all sorts of toxic chemicals banned in legal products, and there’s no way to ensure they’re properly recycled. That’s why ASH supports putting an excise tax on disposable vapes, which could make them much less affordable, while giving much greater powers to Border Force, HMRC and trading standards to control their import, distribution and sale, and to force vape
companies to ensure they are properly recycled.”
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** Smokers who get e-cigarette flavour advice more likely to quit, report finds

Smokers who get help picking the flavour of e-cigarette they will use and receive supportive text messages are much more likely to quit, research has found.

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** The study, led by London South Bank University (LSBU), explored in what settings vapes could help those addicted to smoking give up the habit. After three months, a quarter had quit and a further 13% reduced their cigarette consumption by more than half. The research showed that those who received help to choose a vape flavour and got supportive messages were 55% more likely to give up in three months than those who did not get these services.
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** Lynne Dawkins, a professor of nicotine and tobacco studies at LSBU, said “Smoking kills approximately 8 million people worldwide every year and even some of the often most effective treatments have little effect on reducing the number of smokers. From this treatment, 24.5% were smoke-free after three months and a further 13% had reduced their cigarette consumption by more than 50%.

“The simplicity of tailored support through flavour advice and supportive messages could have a huge impact in helping people lead smoke-free lives.”

Earlier in the year, the government announced that 1 million smokers would be offered vape starter kits as part of a “swap to stop” scheme to make the nation “smoke-free”.

Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “Vapes increase smokers’ chances of successfully quitting, as do vouchers for pregnant smokers, so these are welcome steps in the right direction, but they are nowhere near sufficient.”

Source: The Guardian, 16 July 2023
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** See the full report here ([link removed])
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** Betting firm logos shown on TV up to 3,500 times in Premier League matches, study finds

Betting company logos appear as often as 3,500 times during televised football matches, the majority on pitchside hoardings, prompting renewed scepticism about top-flight clubs’ plan to give up front-of-shirt betting ads only.

A new study found that digital pitchside hoardings were by far the most common location for company logos, accounting for more than half of those seen during a game. By contrast, team shirts accounted for only 6.9% of visible gambling logos.

This draws questions about the agreed a ban on front-of-shirt betting sponsors for Premier League football clubs earlier this year. The voluntary measure does not kick in until 2026 and will still allow firms to advertise on shirt sleeves, pitchside hoardings and other sites around a stadium.

The Big Step, which campaigns for football clubs to cut ties with the betting industry, said the study showed football clubs were not taking gambling’s links to addiction, financial problems and suicide seriously enough.

“This disgusting level of gambling advertising around football stadiums is a national shame and shows why removing the ads from shirts is nowhere near enough,” a spokesperson for the group said.

“Every one of those 3,500 nudges to gamble is a potential hook into addiction for young fans, their parents and even players. The harm gambling advertising causes is no longer ignorable; the government needs to step in and end all gambling advertising in football.”

Only 4.4% of gambling logos were accompanied by some form of harm reduction content, such as messages advising greater caution when gambling.

Source: The Guardian, 17 July 2023
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** International
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** Stare at smokers to stop them, Hong Kong health chief urges public

People in Hong Kong should discourage smoking by staring at anyone who lights up in areas where it is banned, the city's health secretary has suggested.

Current rules in Hong Kong ban smoking inside restaurants, workplaces, indoor public spaces and some outdoor public areas. He said that members of the public had a role to play in enforcing these regulations as it would be difficult for law enforcement to respond to reports of smoking in banned areas.

His suggestion is "When the members of the public see people smoking in non-smoking areas, even if no law enforcement officers can show up immediately, we can stare at the smokers."

Breaking current smoking rules is punishable with a fine of up to HK$1,500 ($192, £147).

"No one will say it requires the law to compel people to queue. Our society is able to create a culture where people will comply with this rule of queuing when waiting for buses. I hope the whole of society can build a non-smoking culture."

Among the new measures being considered by Hong Kong's government are banning people born after a certain year from buying tobacco products and significantly increasing the tax on a packet of cigarettes.

Source: BBC news, 15 July 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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