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Blog: ICBs can lead the way to a smoke-free future
Writing in the NHS Confederation blog; Stephen Eames Chief Executive, Sue Symington Chair, and Amanda Bloor Chief Operating Officer of Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board discuss how ICB’s “have the power to bring system partners together to win the war on tobacco and build a healthier, smoke-free future for all.”
They implore health and care partnerships to support the government’s proposal to raise the age of sale for tobacco as “tackling tobacco is a shared goal, as smoking remains the leading cause of preventable illness and is responsible for 64,000 deaths in England a year”. They go one to highlight the impact smoking has on health and economic inequality, costing the UK £17billion annually. It “drags on our nation's productivity and prosperity; and disproportionately affects individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds and marginalised communities.”
Not only does it affect the population, smoking exhausts the capabilities of the NHS: “each month, 75,000 GP appointments could be attributed to smoking and almost every minute of the day, someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking.”
Eames, Symington and Bloor insist that it is the duty of ICB’s to “address health inequalities caused by smoking” as they have a “unique opportunity to lead communities towards this proposed, life-changing legislation.” They assert that the “noise” ICB’s can make has the power to “shake the chambers of decision-making” and “can make a real impact on reducing the burden of smoking-related illnesses on the population”.
They signpost the work already underway at their ICB, Humber and North Yorkshire, who have prioritised “treating tobacco dependence by accelerating the rollout of the NHS Long Term Plan across our region” and have created a dedicated team to tackle the issue through innovation, collaboration and co-ordination.
Furthermore, they emphasise the important role that ICB’s can play in pushing through the life changing tobacco legislation, stating “ICBs have the power to bind all system partners to a common goal.” They want ICB’s to embrace the opportunity and argue that building a smokefree future will save lives and reduce health inequalities.
Source: NHS Confederation, 3 Nov 2023
See also: DHSC - Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping: what you need to know
ASH has a template letter here which individuals and organisations can adapt for Chair’s and other leaders in your ICB to write to local MPs
You can also respond to the government consultation, either as an individual or work with leaders in your organisation to submit an organisational response. ASH and Fresh has prepared an outline response that can be adapted here. The consultation closes on 7th December.
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Young Britons half as likely to smoke as their parents were at same age
Young people today are half as likely to smoke as their parents were at the same age, figures show.
Only 13 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 smoke cigarettes, compared with 34 per cent of this age group in the mid-1990s.
Smoking rates among today’s youth are less than a third of the levels in their grandparents’ generation, nearly half of whom smoked as young adults in the 1970s.
Next week the King’s Speech will set out legislation aiming to bring this rate down to zero by completely phasing out smoking, which remains by far the biggest cause of cancer in the UK.
Rishi Sunak said the plan to ban smoking for everyone currently under the age of 14 is the “biggest single intervention in public health in a generation”.
Analysis from Cancer Research UK shows it will save tens of thousands of lives each year, with smoking responsible for 125,000 deaths each year in the UK.
When the link between smoking and lung cancer was first proved in the 1950s, 60 per cent of men and 42 per cent of women smoked. This has since fallen gradually to 13 per cent of men and 10 per cent of women in 2022.
The biggest drops all overlap with new regulations to tighten tobacco control, with rates stopping declining during the 1990s, when there were no new laws.
Ian Walker, executive director of policy at Cancer Research UK, said: “Smoking rates don’t fall on their own. It is vital that MPs from all political parties back the new legislation so today’s children will never smoke.
“We have a historic opportunity to remove the burden of tobacco-induced cancers from future generations.
“Most people who smoke today regret having started. They have tried to give up and failed. It takes strong political will and strong public health policy to shift the dial and bring down smoking rates.
“When we look back at public health interventions over the past 60 years, like tax rises on tobacco in the 1980s, and rules on plain packaging, they directly overlap with the decrease in smoking rates.”
The law is expected to lead to a dramatic fall in lung cancer, which is the deadliest cancer in the UK and kills 35,000 a year, with seven in ten cases caused by smoking.
Smoking causes 15 different types of cancer, leading to 54,300 cases a year in the UK, and two out of three people who smoke end up being killed by smoking.
Source: The Times, 3 Nov 2023
See also: DHSC - Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping: what you need to know
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Food firms must cut sugar and salt, says Wales' health chief
Firms dealing in potentially harmful goods should take more responsibility for public health, according to Wales' chief medical officer.
Sir Frank Atherton called on big business to get serious about cutting the sugar and salt people consume.
He said there was a case for government regulation if industries did not take their roles seriously.
In his annual report he also raised concerns about the health impacts of climate change, and the cost of living.
Those, he said, could be as damaging to the nation's health as the Covid-19 pandemic.
The annual assessment, published on Thursday and called Shaping Our Health, said more than 60% of the population, and nearly a third of children starting primary school, are overweight or obese.
Sir Frank said use of products like vapes was often down to strategies used by companies to sell them.
A rise in non-communicable disease was, he said, "being fuelled by a global economic system that currently prioritises wealth creation over health creation".
He highlighted a strategy of the food, alcohol, and gambling industries to fund education in schools in order to market "unhealthy products".
Sir Frank insisted government regulation would not be his first point of call, but added: "I think there's a role for government in this in terms of regulation, because if the industries that I'm talking about are not able to really take their role seriously then we need to think about how government can respond and how it can protect the health of the population."
He called for an urgent public health response.
"We know that these economic shocks to the system have long-term effects on the next generation," he said.
"So, the risk of scarring of the next population, of having a negative health consequence for young people today into the future through what we're now experiencing, is very, very real.
"And that's why I… highlight it as sitting alongside the Covid pandemic as a threat to our health."
Source: BBC News, 2 Nov 2023
See also: Public Health Wales – Annual Report 2022/23
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Millions more former smokers must be regularly screened for lung cancer, American Cancer Society says
Almost five million more people are being recommended to get screened for lung cancer.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) extended its guideline for annual lung cancer screening to encompass older people who smoke or used to smoke, regardless of how long ago they stopped.
Now, everyone aged 50 to 80 with at least a 20-pack-year smoking history (the equivalent to smoking a pack a day for 20 years) should be screened for lung cancer, no matter how long ago they stopped smoking.
It is the first time the ACS guidelines have been updated in 10 years, and the organization estimated that 21 percent more lung deaths will be prevented due to the change.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the US. It is detected using a low-dose computed tomography scan (CT scan).
Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of lung cancer, and while there have been huge drops in overall smoking rates, women have been slower to quit.
By sex, about 67,000 men die from lung cancer every year compared to 59,910 women.
Deaths from lung cancer have, however, been trending downward since the 1980s amid wider awareness of the health risks posed by cigarettes.
About 20 percent of US adults smoked in 2005, surveillance suggests, but in 2021 this had fallen to 11.5 percent.
Source: Daily Mail, 2 Nov 2023
See also: American Cancer Society - New Lung Cancer Screening Guideline Increases Eligibility
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Smoke-Free Law in Singapore Prevents 20,000 Senior Heart Attacks
An extension of the smoking ban to communal areas of residential blocks and other outdoor spaces in Singapore in 2013 may have prevented up to 20,000 heart attacks among those aged 65 and above. This is according to the first local study investigating the effects of expanding such laws to outdoor areas.
The research, published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health, was led by scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School. Their study showed that the extension of the smoking ban was associated with a monthly fall in the rate of heart attacks, with older people and men benefitting the most.
Second-hand smoke exposure is responsible for 1.3 million annual deaths around the globe, many of which are caused by heart attacks. But the existing evidence on the health benefits of comprehensive smoke-free laws, which many countries (67 since 2003) have implemented, is largely confined to indoor smoking bans rather than those for housing estates and outdoor spaces.
In 2013, Singapore extended smoke-free legislation to all communal areas of residential blocks, where 80 per cent of the population lives, as well as outdoor spaces, including covered linkways, overhead bridges and within 5 metres of bus stops.
Before the 2013 extension, the rate of heart attacks among those aged 65 and above was around 10 times that of those under 65 years of age. The rate of cases among men was nearly double that of women. The overall number of heart attacks rose by a rate of 0.9 cases per million people every month before the 2013 extension. But afterwards, this rate fell to 0.6 cases per million people.
Professor Patrick Tan, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS, said: "Smoking remains an unresolved epidemic in Asia, with majority of tobacco consumers being in the region. This study provides additional evidence for policy makers who are looking to expand their smoke-free laws to mitigate the adverse impact of exposure to tobacco smoke and reduce the health burden of heart diseases for their residents."
Source: Mirage News, 3 Nov 2023
See also: BMJ Global Health - Association between the extension of smoke-free legislation and incident acute myocardial infarctions in Singapore from 2010 to 2019
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Hard-hitting quit smoking campaign launched in Greater Manchester
A new hard-hitting quit smoking campaign launches from Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, as part of wider ambitions to become a smokefree city-region by 2030.
The 'What Will You Miss’ campaign, features on TV, radio, and social media, as well as across Greater Manchester boroughs – with a stark message for residents that data suggests up to two in three smokers will die early if they don’t take the steps to quit.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANxyfzH3kx0&t=4s
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Podcast: Let’s talk e-cigarettes - Natalie Walker
Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Dr Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Associate Professor Natalie Walker, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Social and Community Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Natalie Walker discusses her study exploring the effectiveness of nicotine salt vapes, cytisine, and a combination of these products, for smoking cessation in New Zealand. This is a three-arm, pragmatic, community-based randomised controlled trial. They have just finished recruiting 800 participants and the results of this study will be published 2024. This study is funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. We also hear about the stop smoking policies taking place in New Zealand and about current levels of smoking and e-cigarette use there.
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IAS film series: The Price of Alcohol: Explained
The Institute of Alcohol Studies have published the second video in their Explained series: The Price of Alcohol: Explained. The film features health economist Colin Angus from the University of Sheffield, and Dr Aveek Bhattacharya of the Social Market Foundation.
This video explains how the cost of alcohol impacts consumption rates and subsequent harm, how alcohol duties have changed over time, how minimum unit pricing works and whether it is effective in reducing drinking, and the cost of alcohol harm to the economy.
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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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