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YouTube: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is quizzed by NHS Doctor, Dr Karan Rajan
Dr Karan Rajan, an NHS doctor and youtuber, sat down with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to discuss the new legislation to raise the age of sale for tobacco, stopping those aged 14 and below from ever being able to purchase tobacco.
Rajan said the legislation was “from a medical standpoint, music to my ears”, as a physician, he sees the effects of smoking everyday from cancer to heart and lung issues.
He asked Rishi Sunak if the proposed age of sale legislation was simply a broad political statement: “how are you going to action this and make it work?”. Sunak responded by saying that smoking is the biggest cause of ill health in the UK, killing 64,000 people annually and is the cause of 1 in 4 of all cancer deaths. Sunak drew attention to the fact that most people take up smoking when they are young, but as they age, regret it. Sunak stated that this is why he wants to introduce the age of sale legislation, to “stop the start” of people taking up smoking in the first place.
Sunak spoke about his ambition to culturally change how a whole generation thinks about smoking by not giving them the option to buy cigarettes and therefore not take up the habit. He continued to say he also wanted to help existing smokers quit by investing more money in stop smoking services to provide them with the tools and resources they need.
Rajan moved on to ask how we ensure the legislation is effective, stop adults buying young people cigarettes and cease the promotion of vaping products to young people. Rishi answers by saying that raising the legal smoking age has already been proven to be successful, citing the UK’s raising of legal smoking age from 16 to 18 saw a 30% reduction in smoking rates among young people and in the US, who raised the smoking age to 21 saw a 39% reduction.
Sunak also said there would be more funding given to border force, HMRC and local trading standards and councils so they would be able to consistently check that the legislation was being followed and impose strict fines against those who do not comply. Sunak stated the new powers introduced by the Online Safety Act will allow the government to have more control over advertising vapes online to children and hold companies accountable.
Sunak reiterated the position set out by the Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty that if you are an adult smoker, try vaping, but if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.
Sunak finishes by saying that he aims to pass the age of sale legislation in this parliamentary session and that the modelling that the government has done show that they will be able to halve smoking rates among adults in a relatively short space of time.
Source: 10 Downing Street YouTube Channel, 16 November 2023
See also: Government consultation - Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping
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FYI: Weekly News Show – Sir Chris Whitty
Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty was interviewed on Sky Kids FYI Weekly News Show about youth vaping and the targeted advertising used by the vaping industry.
Whitty spoke about how historically the tobacco industry targeting young people and those tactics are being repeated by vaping companies. He said the new age of sale legislation will provide new powers to the government to restrict the number of flavours, colours and reduce the prevalence of disposable vapes as they are often targeted at children.
Whitty went on to say that smoking is so dangerous and as vapes are “a bit safer” he encourages those who do smoke to take up vaping as an alternative but that he doesn’t want anyone who doesn’t smoke to vape.
Sir Chris Whitty says that the three main things he is worried about is people becoming addicted to nicotine through vaping, the long term effects vape flavours on peoples’ health and the toxins in illegal vapes.
Source: FYI: Weekly News Show – episode 244
See also: Government consultation - Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping
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Sussex schools needed for NHS England’s smoking and vaping survey
Schools in the Sussex area are being called upon to participate in the NHS England’s ‘Smoking, Drinking, and Drug use among Young People’ survey, being run by Ipsos.
The data from the survey plays a critical role in the development of policies relating to smoking, vaping, drinking, and drugs, covering prevalence, behaviour, trends, and attitudes amongst school-aged children.
This comes at a time of increased focus on the dangers of vaping to children and a renewed effort from policymakers and healthcare experts on how to address them.
The 2023 survey launched in September and schools across the country have begun signing up and taking part. For the survey to be representative of the whole country, Ipsos is urging schools across South East to sign-up, so that young people in the region can have their voices heard and be part of the national conversation on vaping, smoking, drinking and drug use.
Gary Childs, Assistant Director, Data and Analytics at NHS England said: “The insight about behaviours and attitudes that this survey offers is essential to the formation of effective health and education policy.
“Without the participation of schools, we would not be able to provide this crucial insight and therefore we are extremely grateful to all the schools and students who take up this opportunity.”
Sam Clemens, Research Director at Ipsos said: “We have been really pleased with the successful launch of the survey, which has had record sign-ups. Over the coming months, it is important for us to be able to deliver insightful data that accurately tracks trends across the country to help the development of policy on vaping, smoking, drinking, and drug use. We are therefore encouraging schools in the South East to take part in the survey, so that there is an accurate picture from the capital.”
Source: Sussex World, 20 November 2023
See also: Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England survey
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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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