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** 20 October 2023
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** UK
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** Darlington lung cancer survivor urging young smokers to quit (#2)
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** Six ways health chiefs hope to improve life expectancy in Blackpool - including cracking down on smoking (#3)
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** International
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** Japan: (#4) Bullet train lines to nix smoking rooms as health consciousness grows (#4)
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** Link of the week
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** Charities voice support for government's smokefree plans (#5)
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** Podcast: Money, power, health: Advancing Public Health in Local Government with Greg Fell (#1)
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** UK
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** Darlington lung cancer survivor urging young smokers to quit
A Darlington man is urging young smokers to quit the deadly addiction that destroys lives, following his lung cancer surgery at The James Cook University Hospital.
Martin Cunliffe, 47, started smoking due to pressure from friends and picked up the habit at the young age of 17.
According to a government report, most smokers start as teenagers with 83 per cent smoking before the age of 20.
Originally from Darlington, Martin had worked as a point of sales designer for several years and his work has seen him travelling across Europe.
However, during a routine treatment in the Darlington Memorial Hospital in April 2023, Martin was given "the worst news of his life". The hospital team had found tumours in his lungs.
Following his successful surgery, Martin is now in his recovery stage and is raising awareness among the public – in a bid to encourage smokers to quit and seek help.
He has teamed up with cardiothoracic consultant Jonathan Ferguson, who performed his lung cancer surgery, and Jonathan’s 11-year-old son Thomas and has shot a YouTube video highlighting the effects of smoking on an individual.
Source: The Northern Echo, 19 October 2023
See also: Lung cancer survivor urging young smokers to quit addiction ([link removed].)
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** Six ways health chiefs hope to improve life expectancy in Blackpool - including cracking down on smoking
Quitting tobacco would also ensure people have healthier lives – with frailty kicking in at just 45 years of age for some Blackpool residents.
A meeting of the Blackpool Health and Wellbeing Board also heard more money needed to be spent on preventing people from becoming chronically ill.
Life expectancy for men in Blackpool is 74 – more than five years lower than the national average, while for women it is 79 – more than four years below the national average.
Figures from 2021 show a fifth of adults (20 per cent) in the town are smokers, compared to 13 per cent in England as a whole.
Karen Smith, director of health and care integration for Blackpool, warned Blackpool had an ageing population but “frailty starts at 45, not 65”.
Chronic diseases include respiratory conditions, including asthma, while high levels of obesity among the population are also having an impact.
But one of the main areas of focus, is to cut smoking rates.
Ms Smith said: “We are trying to cut smoking rates and that will have an impact immediately on health, chronic illness and life expectancy.”
Blackpool’s director of public health Dr Arif Rajpura said improving life expectancy could only be achieved in the long term, including by prioritising prevention now.
Source: The Blackpool Gazette, 19 October 2023
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** International
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** Japan: Bullet train lines to nix smoking rooms as health consciousness grows
Smoking rooms will no longer be provided aboard Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu bullet trains due to growing health consciousness among the public and a decline in smoking rates, the railway operators have announced.
As of next spring, the smoking rooms will be replaced with areas to store drinking water to be provided to passengers in times of emergency, the operators said Tuesday.
According to Central Japan Railway (JR Central), West Japan Railway (JR West) and Kyushu Railway (JR Kyushu), the change will allow faster response times during disasters and other emergencies.
“If we are forced to stop the train for an extended period of time at a place other than a station, we will be able to distribute water to passengers more quickly,” JR Central and JR West said in their statements.
Source: Japan Times, 18 October 2023
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Read Here ([link removed])
** Link of the week
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** Charities voice support for government's smokefree plans
The Government has bought together members of the Smokefree Action Coalition to discuss historic new legislation to protect future generations of young people. Organisations also discussed how to support plans to tackle youth vaping while ensuring they remain available to help adult smokers quit.
Public Health Minister Neil O’Brien and the Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, hosted a roundtable bringing together key stakeholders to discuss the details of the proposed legislation. They also discussed the challenges around youth vaping, and what can be done to prevent children from using vapes whilst also ensuring they remain available to adult smokers as a quit aid.
Attendees included members of the Smokefree Action Coalition, a group of over 300 organisations across the UK committed to ending smoking. The coalition is coordinated by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of ASH, said: “We believe that enacting this groundbreaking smoking legislation is paramount in our ongoing battle to end the profound harms smoking causes our society.”
“This meeting was an opportunity to voice our support for the government’s plans.”
See also: Government consultation: Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping ([link removed].)
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Read Here ([link removed])
** Podcast: Money, power, health: Advancing Public Health in Local Government with Greg Fell
In episode 7 of the Money Power Health with Nason Maani podcast, Maani discusses the practice of public health in local authorities with Greg Fell, Director of Public Health in Sheffield and Vice President of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, DPHs like Greg and their teams faced enormous pressures in terms of their capacity, coordination, expertise and media presence. Fell is a leading voice in UK public health and has a blog where he pulls together a wide range of knowledge into bite-size, actionable chunks.
Maani delves into Greg’s Public Health journey, what a Director of Public Health does, the state of health and health inequalities in Sheffield and what it was like working in a public health team during COVID-19. They also discuss what personal qualities one needs to be effective in that kind of local government setting, and what commercial determinants of health mean for public health at the local authority level.
Source: Money, power, health by Nason Maani, 22 March 2023
See also: Gregs Fell’s blog ([link removed]) | Smokefree Sheffield ([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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