|
|
|
|
Calls for shop display laws to halt youth vaping
Supermarkets should be banned from displaying e-cigarettes to keep vapes “out of sight and reach of children”, research suggests.
Two thirds of children say they have noticed vaping products for sale in supermarkets, despite it being illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s.
Researchers at Imperial College London asked 12,445 children aged from 11 to 18 if they notice vapes when they go into supermarkets. Some 66 per cent said they did last year, up from 57 per cent when the same survey was carried out in 2018.
Over the same period, the likelihood of noticing tobacco products has fallen from 67 per cent to 59 per cent.
Campaigners are calling for a similar law to help slow down a rise in youth vaping. Anthony Laverty, lead author of the research and lecturer at the school of public health at Imperial College London, said: “These results highlight high levels of exposure to tobacco and e-cigarettes among children, as well as the ease of accessing these products.
“This is despite legislation prohibiting sales to minors. There needs to be greater enforcement of existing laws on the display of tobacco, as well as action to stem e-cigarette advertising and put vapes out of sight and reach of children.”
Nicholas Hopkinson, co-author of the study and professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial, added: “In 2021 the UK government rejected amendments to the Health and Care Bill which would have given it power to control types of e-cigarette marketing that promote youth uptake.”
“Since then, youth vaping has increased dramatically. It is well past time for the government to take steps to deal with this.”
Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “Quantifying the impact on children of the growing promotion of vapes is crucial to determine the scale of the problem and how it can be best addressed. This analysis shows that in-store promotion has the biggest impact, which is why ASH is advocating that promotion and display of e-cigarettes in shops should be prohibited, as should the child-friendly packaging and labelling of vapes.”
Source: The Times, 31 July 2023
See also: Changing awareness and sources of tobacco and ecigarettes among children and adolescents in Great Britain
|
|
Greater Manchester backs ban on disposable vapes and calls for deposit return scheme to be introduced
Greater Manchester has thrown its support behind the Local Government Association’s recent call for a ban on disposable vapes, citing the fire risk the devices cause when they enter the waste stream.
GMCA is the largest joint waste disposal authority in the country, handling around 1.1 million tonnes of municipal waste each year.
As the EU is a proposing a ban in 2026 and a ban in France is coming into force in December 2023, the LGA has said that it is crucial for England and Wales to follow suit to avoid a flood of vapes coming into the country.
GMCA has proposed the government go one step further and introduce a deposit return scheme, which would see users receive credit in return for their used vapes, in order to capture and recycle the lithium contained within them.
Source: About Manchester, 1 August 2023
|
|
Only one country in Europe doing enough to stop people smoking, according to the WHO
“Tobacco use continues to be one of the biggest public health threats,” said a World Health Organization official.
Just four countries - only one of which is in the European Union - have implemented all of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommended measures to reduce tobacco smoking globally.
The countries of the Netherlands and Mauritius have now joined Brazil and Turkey in implementing the measures, according to the UN health agency’s latest report on progress in controlling tobacco.
The WHO recommends monitoring tobacco use and prevention, protecting people from smoke, offering help for quitting, warning people about smoking’s dangers, enforcing bans on advertising, and raising taxes on tobacco.
Smoking is responsible for 8.7 million deaths per year globally and around 700,000 deaths per year in the European Union.
It remains the “single largest avoidable health risk, and the most significant cause of premature death in the EU,” according to the European Commission.
Globally, around 71 per cent of the world’s population is now protected by at least one measure to help reduce tobacco smoking, according to the WHO’s new report.
That is five times more than in 2007, the organisation said, as smoking rates have declined globally.
But there is much more that can be done to stamp out smoking, WHO experts warned.
“Still 2.3 billion people in 44 countries remain unprotected by any evidence-based demand reduction tobacco control measures, leaving them at risk of the health and economic burden of tobacco use,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, WHO’s health promotion director.
Source: EuroNews, 31 July 2023
See also: WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2023: protect people from tobacco smoke
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
