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** 4 October 2023
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** UK
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** Rishi rumoured to confirm New Zealand-style smoking ban tomorrow (#1)
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** Opinion: What to do about the tobacco companies still killing millions? Make them pay – and heavily (#2)
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** Parliamentary activity
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** Steve Barclay – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference (#3)
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** UK
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** Rishi rumoured to confirm New Zealand-style smoking ban tomorrow
The latest gossip at Tory conference is the government is pushing ahead with plans to ban smoking entirely for future generations, with an announcement rumoured for tomorrow in the PM’s main floor speech. Rishi was reported to be considering the move at the end of last month, and now Guido hears he’s made the decision, along with banning disposable vapes.
The rumour did the rounds last night, with a government source admitting it is currently the plan. The policy would see everyone born after a certain year – thought to be 2008 – banned entirely from purchasing cigarettes.
Source: Guido Fawkes, 3 October 2023.
Editorial note: You can watch Prime Minister’s Rishi Sunak’s speech here at 11:15
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Read Here ([link removed])
** Opinion: What to do about the tobacco companies still killing millions? Make them pay – and heavily
Writing for the Guardian, Michelle Mitchell, the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, discusses the harms of smoking, the high profit margins of the tobacco industry and how a tobacco levy is the answer.
Mitchell talks about growing up in Liverpool which historically has had higher than average smoking rates and thinks of the impact this had on her community. She notes that people were unable to work due to smoking related illness, children were inhaling second hand smoke and the financial burden on her community “weighed heavily”.
Mitchell writes that meanwhile, the Big 4 tobacco companies in the UK make around £900 million in profits every year and that they make this on the back of selling a product that will “kill the majority of its users.”
Mitchell writes that strong action is needed to accelerate the rate of reduction in smoking prevalence. Regulation on marketing, packaging and taxation have all helped bring down smoking rates but Mitchell argues that more is needed and that “we need to hit this lethal industry where it hurts- its profits”.
Mitchell writes that “the idea that a polluter pays” isn’t new with water companies being fined for dumping sewage in waterways. A levy on the tobacco industry could help offset the estimated £21bn a year tobacco costs the UK in health and social care costs, lost productivity and costs of fires. A levy on the tobacco industry should be used to help fund measures and services that would help people quit and prevent others from ever starting smoking in the first place.
Mitchell points to estimates that we are set to miss smokefree 2030 (defined as having smoking prevalence of 5% or less) by almost a decade and that a tobacco levy could help turn this around.
She concludes by saying that tobacco has impacted everyone in one way or another, either through illness, longer NHS waiting lists or economic inactivity as a result of ill-health and that these are cross-party issues which is why tobacco control requires “cross-party collaboration and commitment.”
Source: The Guardian, 4 October 2023
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Read Here ([link removed])
** Parliamentary activity
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** Steve Barclay – 2023 Speech to Conservative Party Conference
Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, made a speech at the Conservative Part Conference on Monday. You can watch it here ([link removed]) .
The full transcript of his speech is also available here ([link removed]) .
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Read the transcript here ([link removed])
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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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