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** 20 February 2020
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** UK
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** Lords health minister resigns after government reshuffle (#1)
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** Government names preferred NICE chair (#2)
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** International
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** US: Businesses increasingly introducing no smoking hiring policies (#3)
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** Italy: Ferrari keeps Mission Winnow on car after legal threat (#4)
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** UK
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Baroness Blackwood has stepped down from her role as health minister and the government’s health lead in the Lords. Baroness Blackwood, whose portfolio included research, life sciences and innovation, announced her resignation on Twitter on Friday 14th February. She said that although she was “grateful to be offered [the] chance” to retain her role after last week’s government reshuffle, she was leaving to ”to pursue new ventures and perhaps even get a glimpse of my family”.
Baroness Blackwood initially served as health minister for 11 months from July 2016 while she was Conservative MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, until she lost her seat in the 2017 general election. However, she made a return to government 18 months later when she was given a life peerage in the House of Lords and returned to the health minister role in January 2019. She replaced Lord O’Shaughnessy, who stepped down in December 2018.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said her replacement will be announced “in due course”.
Source: Health Service Journal, 17 February 2020
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The government has named Sharmila Nebhrajani as its preferred candidate to chair the board of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. Sharmila Nebhrajani’s suitability will be assessed at a health and social care committee hearing in March. Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock will then decide whether to appoint her as NICE chair.
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** Ms Nebhrajani is currently chief executive of Wilton Park, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office agency that provides a forum for strategic discussion on issues like global health. She has previously been chair of the Human Tissue Authority, chief executive of the Association of Medical Research, director of external affairs of the Medical Research Council, and deputy chair of research watchdog the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Ms Nebhrajani, who also holds non-executive roles at the Health Foundation and the British Medical Journal, was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2014 for services to medical research.
If appointed, Ms Nebhrajani will be the third ever substantive chair of NICE. Sir David Haslam held the role from 2013 to 2019, taking over from Sir Michael Rawlins who chaired the body from its inception in 1999. Tim Irish took over as chair on an interim basis in January. He is leading the search for a chief executive to follow Andrew Dillon, who founded the body in 1999. Sir Andrew is due to leave his post in March.
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Source: Health Service Journal, 14 February 2020
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** International
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** Nearly a decade after she stopped smoking, Mabel Battle still has the last pack of cigarettes she ever bought, kept as a testament of her willpower. However, her success at giving up is also the result of a contentious corporate experiment. What finally prodded Ms Battle into her decision was a fear that her habit might threaten her employment. The Cleveland Clinic, where Ms Battle works as a health unit co-ordinator, introduced a new policy to chemically screen job applicants for nicotine and refuse employment to those who test positive. Workers such as Mr Battle who were employed before the ban, would not be fired for smoking in their free time. “Being a healthcare worker is setting an example,” says Dr Bruce Rogen, the chief medical officer of the Cleveland Clinic’s employee health plan. Since instituting the ban, and offering free smoking-cessation programmes to employees, Dr Rogen says hundreds of people at the clinic have quit.
Only 21 US states (including Ohio, where the Cleveland Clinic is based) allow companies to exclude smokers from their workforce outright - however in these states such policies have become the norm in the healthcare sector. Now the practice is spreading, and companies in other industries are implementing similar policies.
U-Haul, an Arizona-based moving company with about 30,000 workers, this month became one of the largest employers in the US to stop hiring nicotine users — a policy that includes not just smokers but users of “nicotine products”. This potentially covers people who test positive for nicotine because they are trying to give up smoking using vaping, gum or patches. Like The Cleveland Clinic, U-Haul will allow those hired before the restriction to keep their jobs and the hiring ban will only apply in the same 21 states. The states that do not allow companies to ban nicotine-users often have laws that prohibit discrimination against “legal off-duty conduct”, says Karen Buesing, an employment law specialist.
U-Haul says its new anti-nicotine policy is part of its commitment to employee “wellness”, but there are also clear financial motives. In the US, where health insurance is required and typically provided by employers, companies pay more for health coverage if their workforce includes a lot of smokers, says Ms Buesing. About one in every four companies with more than 500 employees offers non-smokers a reduced rate on their healthcare premiums, says Steven Noeldner, partner at law firm Mercer.
Source: Financial Times, 20 February 2020
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** Editorial note: ASH does not support the policies mentioned in this article or making employment conditional on employees not using tobacco or nicotine products. While smoking incurs a substantial cost to society and employers, most people who smoke started as children before they understood how addictive tobacco is, and how difficult it is to quit. People who smoke should be given the support they need to quit, rather than being punished for addiction.
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Ferrari is continuing to run the logos of Mission Winnow on its car despite an Italian consumer rights group threatening legal action over the brand last week.
The non-profit organisation Codacons called for the seizure of the team’s new SF1000 car after it was launched in Reggio Emilia eight days ago. Codacons claims the logos of the team’s title partner Mission Winnow, a Philip Morris International initiative, are intended to circumvent laws preventing tobacco promotion in Europe.
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** Ferrari launched its Mission Winnow branding at the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix. However health organisation in several countries raised concerns over the whether the branding satisfied legislation on tobacco advertising. The Mission Winnow brand featured on the team’s car at 10 of last year’s 21 races. However PMI say it will continue to appear on the car at times during 2020.
The only other team on the grid which is sponsored by a tobacco manufacturer is McLaren, which has the backing of British American Tobacco. It is running the logos of BAT’s Velo brand, which the company describes as an oral product which contains nicotine but not tobacco.
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Source: Race Fans, 19 February 2020
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