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** 25 October 2023
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** UK
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** University Hospital Southampton will be smoke free next year (#1)
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** Illegal tobacco worth £12.5k seized from Gloucester flat (#2)
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** International
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** Record levels of illicit tobacco seized amid series of firebombing attacks in Melbourne (#3)
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** UK
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** Health leaders at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) have pledged to make it a smoke-free site by early next year.
Chief executive officer David French, chair Jenni Douglas-Todd and chief medical officer Paul Grundy signed a national pledge committing the Trust to be smoke-free by April.
Coinciding with Stoptober, the national public health campaign aimed at encouraging smokers to quit, the organisation is now implementing a series of measures so that patients, staff and visitors do not smoke whilst on UHS sites and have the support they need to live smoke-free.
There are around 500,000 hospital admissions in the UK each year that are linked to smoking – with smokers 36 per cent more likely to be admitted than non-smokers.
At UHS 70 per cent of lung cancer cases are directly linked to smoking and, across Southampton, smoking accounts for one in six deaths.
The Trust has already successfully introduced an in-house smoking cessation service smokers are referred to on admission. It helps patients remain smoke-free during their stay.
In the last year, 53 per cent of people who have used the service have continued to be smoke-free following their discharge.
Midwives have undergone extra training to support expectant parents who smoke. Support services for staff are being stepped up with a series of events being held by the occupational health team to help staff quit.
The move had been welcomed by health leaders in Southampton. Cllr Lorna Fielker, Cabinet Member for Health, Adults and Housing, said: “I’m so pleased UHS have signed up and that they’re doing such fantastic work to encourage patients, staff and visitors to be smoke-free.
“I have first-hand experience of using local stop smoking support services; the help and support available is brilliant and I’m pleased to say I have not smoked since!”
Source: The Daily Echo, 25 October 2023
See also: ASH – The NHS Smokefree Pledge ([link removed])
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** Illegal tobacco worth £12.5k seized from Gloucester flat
Illegal tobacco worth more than £12,000 has been seized from a flat in Gloucester city centre.
Gloucestershire Police carried out a search at the property on 18 October after receiving complaints from the community about the sale of illegal tobacco.
They found that the tobacco was being stored in a nearby flat and uncovered 2,284 packs of illegal cigarettes and 117 pouches of illegal hand rolling tobacco, worth a total of £12,500.
Officers also seized a quantity of cash.
It was part of a joint operation by police and Gloucestershire County Council.
Councillor Dave Norman, cabinet member for trading standards at the council, said: "This seizure shows that our trading standards team will work tirelessly to keep these harmful products off the streets and we are grateful to the community for information they pass to us.”
Source: ITV X, 25 October 2023
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** International
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** Record levels of illicit tobacco seized amid series of firebombing attacks in Melbourne
Australian law enforcement agencies have made some of the largest and most valuable seizures of illicit tobacco on record, amid an outbreak of violence linked to the trade and another firebombing of a Melbourne retailer.
According to annual reports released last week, the Australian Border Force (ABF) and Australian Crime and Intelligence Commission (ACIC) noticed a surge in seizures at the same time as multiple states were seeing firebombings and shootings with suspected links to underground tobacco syndicates.
In 2022-23, the ABF seized more than 2,000 tonnes of tobacco for the first time, although the number of individual seizures was down.
That was a huge increase on the 1,600 tonnes recorded the previous year, and almost eclipsed the total for the three years before that combined.
The ABF-led illicit tobacco taskforce also detected 168 instances of revenue evasion worth around $522m, the annual report said.
The ACIC’s annual report showed $79m worth of illicit tobacco was seized in 2022-23, the highest value for annual seizure since records started in 2017-18.
The ABF’s annual report said it remained “committed to supporting the government’s efforts to crack down on illicit tobacco, which is viewed by organised crime as a low-risk, high-reward venture”.
“We continue to build on success achieved through our international engagement to develop joint operational lines of effort that disrupt the transnational supply of illicit tobacco in source and transhipment countries.”
Source: The Guardian, 25 October 2023
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