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Sick note Britain: Country’s ‘sickness explosion’ costing economy £15bn every year, experts warn
The UK is being gripped by a “sickness explosion” that is costing the economy £15bn a year, experts have warned.
A new report by health experts and peers has found that Britain has “among the worst population health in Europe” as a result of high levels of obesity, excessive drinking, and significant health inequalities.
Coupled with a rising number of elderly people and a “ballooning demand” for care, this is leading to a “health emergency”, according to the report, which is titled A Covenant for Health. The report says that these factors have led to a high level of “premature often avoidable ill health”, which it says is damaging the economy and the NHS.
Authored by former Labour minister Geoffrey Filkin and former Conservative health minister James Bethell, along with public health experts and academics from think tank The King’s Fund, the report found that millions of people in Britain are becoming prematurely ill, which is forcing many to drop out of the workforce. This cost the economy £15bn in 2022-23 because of the associated higher welfare costs and lower tax revenue.
Lord Filkin, who is chair of the Covenant for Health Commission, said: “There will be 16 million people living with obesity by 2030, and 500,000 will die from smoking and poor air quality over the next five years.
“The NHS alone cannot solve this. Far too many of us get avoidable illnesses which harm our lives and cause us to drop out of work.”
He added that Britain’s people need to “keep well to be happy, to contribute and to sustain our economy and our NHS”, but noted that “we have all done far too little to prevent ill health”.
Source: The Independent, 19 July 2023
See also
A covenant for health: policies and partnerships to improve our national health in 5 to 10 years
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Proportion of smokers buying duty free tobacco in England triples since 2019
The proportion of smokers who have bought duty free tobacco in England has tripled since 2019, rising from just over 5% to more than 16%, according to a study.
The findings were a “cause for concern”, authors of the study, published online in the journal Tobacco Control, said, because those who used cheap tobacco were less likely to quit.
The study aimed to find out if “significant” social and economic changes in England prompted by Brexit rule changes on allowable tobacco purchases for personal use, the social and travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis, had affected buying habits.
Researchers looked at data from 11,232 adults who had smoked in the past year, analysing changes between February 2019 – a year before the UK formally left the European Union – and October 2022.
The proportion of respondents who said they had bought on the black market did not change significantly.
Participants were not asked about the frequency or quantity of tobacco purchases, so no distinction could be made between occasional and regular use of cost-cutting strategies.
However the report concludes: “A rise in cross-border (duty free) tobacco purchasing is a cause for concern given people who use cheap tobacco are less likely to try to quit smoking.
“Policy measures that reduce access to cheaper sources of tobacco could help increase the rate of quit attempts among those who smoke and accelerate progress towards the Government’s Smoke Free 2030 target.”
Source: The Independent, 18 July 2023
See also
Jackson S, Cox S, Brown J. Trends in cross-border and illicit tobacco purchases among people who smoke in England, 2019-2022. Tobacco Control. 2023 Jul 1.
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Opinion: I have finally kicked a decades-long smoking habit – banning vapes would be a disaster
Writing in the i newspaper, Night Editor Kevin Lynch discusses the Local Government Association’s (LGA) call to ban disposable vapes.
Lynch begins by stating that vaping has helped him quit smoking, “a longstanding addiction going back several decades.” He highlights the LGA’s concerns that disposable vapes are “too appealing to children, cause litter problems and are a fire hazard,” and argues that the same could be said of cigarettes.
Lynch discusses his own experience of quitting with disposable vapes and how difficult he initially found it to reduce his smoking. He states that he has been able to gradually replace smoking for vaping and now uses a reusable vape, but states that he “would not have got here without disposable vapes.”
Source: The i, 16 July 2023
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