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Comment: Smoking is a tax
Writing in the New Statesman, business editor Will Dunn argues that smoking, which levies £14bn-a-year for the government should be considered a tax and that it is mostly paid by the people who can least afford it.
Dunn states that the cost of smoking is not optional for most smokers because nicotine is “one of the most addictive substances known to science.” Added to this, most smokers gain the addiction in childhood where their chance of taking up smoking is heavily determined by socioeconomic factors. Dunn points out that those “living in the most deprived areas are four times as likely to smoke than those in least deprived areas.”
Dunn highlights that most of the money spent on a pack of cigarettes goes to the government, with tobacco duty netting the government more than £10bn a year, while the VAT on tobacco products (of which the UK bought £21.3bn last year) would add up to another £4.3bn.
However, Dunn argues that the “smoking tax” is highly regressive because it is overwhelmingly concentrated among the most deprived groups in society: “the fifth of the population with the lowest incomes do almost a third of the smoking, paying almost £5,000 a year for a 20-a-day habit.”
Dunn explains that “this is a problem for the economy” because spending by people on low incomes is the most likely to go back into the “real economy” in the form of goods and services.
He also highlights the major burden smoking places on the NHS and the economy through increased prevalence of heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer and dementia, and points out that smoking “costs the NHS £2.6bn a year.”
Dunn argues that the problem with the current debate around smoking (and vaping) bans is that people defend it as a liberty. For Dunn: “It isn’t: the whole point of selling a highly addictive drug (backed up by vast sums in marketing and lobbying, not to mention all the free samples given to children) is to deprive the consumer of choice.”
Source: The New Statesman, 13 October 2023
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Letters to the editor: I see the horror smoking causes. It must be stopped
The Times has printed a series of letters responding to an article written by the artist and smoker David Hockney: David Hockney: Sunak says smoking kills — but guess what, we’ll all die anyway.
In one letter, Dr Nicholas Branch, emergency medicine associate specialist, Guernsey said:
The dedicated smoker David Hockney rejects plans to restrict tobacco, saying, “My three doctors told me to give up smoking. They’re all dead now” (News Review, last week). His words are an example of outcome bias: “I’ve done it all my life and I’m still here.” I see those who are not so lucky.
People with smoking-related disease wheeze into our A&E by ambulance at all hours, gasping for breath, puffy and in pain. They have cancers, lung disease, heart disease or other conditions. Their organs are knackered. They can’t walk more than a few yards without inhalers or oxygen. Their quality of life is often close to zero — and astonishingly, because of the addictiveness of nicotine, they almost all still smoke.
The vast majority of smokers die before their time, often with ghastly chronic illness. The health system is on its knees. Any commonsense ideas to reduce the disease burden should be considered.
Source: The Times, 15 October 2023
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“Stopping the start”—new tobacco control measures for England
In an editorial in the BMJ, Sanjay Agrawal, consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine and John Britton, emeritus professor of epidemiology at Nottingham University discuss the new tobacco control measures in the government's ''stopping the start'' command paper.
Defending the government's bold moves they write: ''The measure won’t end smoking among young people because cigarettes can be accessed in many ways other than legal over-the-counter purchase. What it will do over several years, however, is encourage new societal norms among young people that do not, for the most part, include tobacco smoking. Concerns about prohibition fuelling illicit trade seem unfounded, as buying tobacco will remain legal for adults born after 2009, and other nicotine products will still be available.''
They go on discuss potential barriers to the implementation of the new measures. The first being interference from the tobacco industry. They warn that ''the tobacco industry is likely to seek to halt, obstruct, delay, and dilute the legislation, as it has before (by challenging plain packaging mandates, for example. The tobacco industry will also likely raise concerns about a nanny state, inflating the risks of illicit supply, and over-regulation.''
To combat this, they write ''Health charities, public sector bodies, academia, and the public must work together to prevent industry interference in accordance with article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.''
Their final point of possible contention is that the new legislation will require retailers to verify the age of increasingly older adults purchasing tobacco. Their suggestion for tackling this is recognising that compliance will need careful monitoring by trading standards services. Further they consider that the ''burden could be mitigated by a licensing scheme for retailers, limiting the number and location of licensed tobacco retailers, as is already the case in New Zealand and some other countries.''
Source: The BMJ, 13 October 2023
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Royal Albion Hotel fire caused by discarded cigarette
A fire at a 200-year-old hotel in Brighton which left the building "dangerously unstable" was probably caused by a discarded cigarette, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said.
The blaze at the Regency-style Royal Albion Hotel - which overlooks Brighton Pier - broke out on 15 July.
About 100 people were forced to leave the surrounding area and find alternative accommodation.
Demolition began on the Grade II listed site a few days later.
The fire service said it had confirmed the cause of the fire was accidental.
A spokesman said: "A fire investigation has concluded that it was likely started by a discarded cigarette which had not been completely put out."
Source BBC News, 13 October 2023
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European Union: Big Tobacco turns to rooibos tea to counter upcoming ban
Big Tobacco firms including British American Tobacco are selling heat sticks made from nicotine-infused substances such as rooibos tea, countering an incoming European Union ban on flavoured heated tobacco products.
While the sticks mark a new way to inhale the addictive drug, health experts warn that their safety is unclear.
The industry has produced heat-not-bur sticks containing tobacco for years, aiming to avoid the toxic chemicals released via combustion.
British American Tobacco has now gone a step further, launching a version of its sticks containing nicotine-infused Rooibos tea instead of tobacco in nine European markets, including Germany and Greece. The company plans to roll the product out globally, it told Reuters.
There may, however, be as yet unknown risks associated with inhaling the tea, researchers warned.
"Anything that burns or is vaporised...and inhaled into the lungs, probably will cause some effects," said Erikas Simonavicius, a research associate at King's College London.
Rival Philip Morris International (PMI) will start rolling out a zero-tobacco stick later this year, it said during an investor day in September. It declined to tell Reuters what the product is made from, or to comment on its health implications.
Source: Reuters, 16 October 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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