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Switching to vapes ‘could save NHS more than half a billion a year’, study says
Half of England’s adult smokers making a switch to e-cigarettes could save the NHS more than £500 million per year, a study has claimed.
Researchers at Brunel University London used data from NHS Digital, the Royal College of Physicians and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to identify the prevalence of smoking in each region.
They found that between 2019 and 2021, 13.6% of people aged 18 and over in England smoked.
The study, published in the British Journal of Healthcare Management, suggests that if 50% of those people were to switch to e-cigarettes, hospital admissions would reduce by 13%, translating to savings of £518 million.
The research team calculated total health expenditure by multiplying average ward costs per bed day for a specific disease by the mean length of stay in hospital for five diseases- cancer, heart, stroke, bronchitis and emphysema.
Professor Francesco Moscone, a business economics expert from Brunel University London, said: “Such illnesses put significant burdens on the NHS, which we know is already under increasing pressure.”
In 2019, the Government outlined its ambition to make England “smoke free” by 2030. It also launched a “swap to stop” campaign in April, offering one millions smokers vapes to encourage them to quit cigarettes.
He added that while the long-term impact of vapes are still unknown, previous research has shown they “result in a 90% reduction in the exposure to chemicals that are major contributors to health risks”.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said: “This study provides further evidence that by providing one million vapes to smokers to help them quit, the Government’s ‘swap to stop’ campaign would help reduce pressure on our overstretched NHS.’’
However, although smoking costs the NHS well over £2 billion a year, the biggest benefit to public finances from reductions in smoking won’t be to the NHS, but in reductions in spending on social security and social care due to smoking, which together amount to more than double the cost of smoking to the NHS.”
A poll of 12,271 adults, carried out by YouGov for charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), found 43% of people think vaping is as dangerous or more dangerous than smoking cigarettes. Ms Arnott said “inaccurate beliefs about the harms” of vaping are a “barrier to smokers” and “must be urgently addressed”.
Source: The Independent 7 August 2023
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Illegal tobacco stash worth £32k seized in Weston-super-Mare
Illegal tobacco worth £32,000 has been seized after help from a sniffer dog.
Assisted by trained tobacco sniffer dog Griff, North Somerset Council's Trading Standards (NSCTS) seized the stash of illegal tobacco and cash, from three premises in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
Mr Clayton, the executive member for safety in the community, thanked the officers and teams, which also included the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit and His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), for the enforcement and raids.
The raids were part of Operation Cece, a national trading standards project tackling the supply and sale of illegal tobacco.
Source: BBC News, 6 August 2023
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Opinion: My live fast, die young youth was fun, but I don’t expect the NHS to pick up the pieces
Writing in the Guardian, Lord James Bethell, reflects on a youth of smoking, drinking and partying which he worries will have a lasting impact on his health and life expectancy.
He cites a recent US study of veterans which suggests '‘there’s an early death for people who smoke, toke and booze too much, who are stressed, cantankerous and knackered, and prefer junk food to jogging''.
Bethell cites advice from the leader of the study who suggests that making better decisions on ''drugs, sleep, weight, exercise, smoking, stress friendships and boozing'' can, at any age, still improve your health prognosis.
This, Bethell claims, is advice which could tackle '‘exploding'’ healthcare costs in the UK.
Referencing a recent report from the Health Foundation, he discusses the ‘’conundrum’’ of Britons living longer but poor lifestyle choices meaning people are living this longer life with chronic diseases, the care and treatment of which the NHS is struggling to keep up with.
Bethell writes ‘if we do not have enough money to treat all this sickness, shouldn’t we change some of our habits to prevent this disease in the first place?’’.
He calls for a new social contract, and an end to a mindset that takes for granted that you can live fast, and expect the NHS to ‘'put you back on your feet'’. Instead, we need the government to support us to live healthier lives.
Bethell suggests that, rather than worrying about the nanny state, most Britons would welcome measures to facilitate making healthier choices.
He gives the example of smoking saying ‘’we have known since 1954 that smoking is clearly a killer. Not even the smokers want to smoke. So we should implement the Khan review, subtitled “Making smoking obsolete”, immediately.’’
If we manage to promote and implement healthier lifestyles, Bethell concludes there is hope that we can make up for the mistakes of the past.
Source: The Times, 6 August 2023
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Holly Mead, the Times’ deputy money editor, discuses ESG investing and looks specifically at investments in tobacco funds. ESG investing is the strategy of investing with Environmental, Social and Governance factors in mind, choosing to invest in companies which ''treat the world, their staff and their customers well'', and shunning companies that do not.
She quotes a financial advisor who doesn’t believe in ESG investing, who instead sticks to the belief that investing is for making profit, and that if people want to do good in the world they should donate money to charity, or to maximise this, choose good investments and invest the profit in charities.
Mead is not convinced of this argument, although she worries that ‘ESG’ is a label being '‘slapped on'’ to funds to meet current trends in sustainability demands from customers, without any evidence they are adhering to ESG criteria.
Instead, she asks what if ESG were the norm and labels were instead focussed on highlighting investment in companies which are bad for the environment or society.
She says surely it should be funds ''laden with fossil fuels, fast fashion, tobacco and poor practices which should have a warning label, not those seeking to do some good''.
We should replace ESG labels, which Mead worries will drive people away from those investments, with warning labels on investments in companies that bring harm to people and the planet.
Source: The Times, August 5 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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