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ASH CEO Deborah Arnott to retire in the Autumn as the Government poised to create first smokefree generation
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) announces that after 21 successful years, Deborah Arnott will be retiring from ASH on 30th September and the Board of Trustees is starting the recruitment process for her successor. This will allow time for her successor to be recruited before she leaves, to enable a smooth transition. For more information on the new vacancy please visit this link.
The last 21 years have seen Deborah Arnott develop and lead ASH and the Smokefree Action Coalition which ASH coordinates, to substantial campaign successes including legislation prohibiting smoking in public places, putting tobacco out of sight in shops, and plain standardised tobacco packs.
Before Deborah retires, parliament is expected to have passed revolutionary laws to create a smokefree generation; a fitting end to two decades of campaigning success.
Prof Nick Hopkinson, Chair of Trustees at ASH, said,
“I want to thank Deborah for her passion and determination over the last twenty one years. While everyone at ASH will be sad to see Deborah go, she leaves ASH in a robust position, with sound finances and a talented staff team. The next chief executive will inherit a highly-motivated group of colleagues and supporters. Now is an exciting time for tobacco control, with government commitments to a smokefree future and raising the age of sale to create a smokefree generation overwhelmingly supported by the public and parliament.”
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said,
“I am proud to be leaving ASH at a good time and in safe hands, well on the way to delivery of our mission to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco. Our values, the strength of our team, the quality of ASH advocacy and networking, and our reputation and influence all stand us in good stead for the future. Whoever takes over from me is inheriting the leadership of an outstanding organisation."
Bob Blackman MP, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health which ASH provides the secretariat for, said,
“What has been achieved in tobacco legislation over the last twenty-one years is in no small measure due to the brilliant work led by Deborah at ASH. Working in collaboration with politicians from across the political spectrum she has built and sustained a truly cross party consensus on ending the harms from smoking. As a result, I have no doubt that MPs from every party will vote to create a smokefree generation later this year. We have much to thank her for.”
For more than twenty years Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation have been ASH’s major funders.
Further quotes are included in the press release here.
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Staffordshire raids uncover illegal vapes and tobacco products
Illegal vapes, tobacco and banned imported food worth almost £40,000 have been seized by trading standards officials.
They were found during raids at two shops in Stafford and two in Stone.
Staffordshire County Council said the officers, supported by dogs and Staffordshire Police, found 2,221 illegal and oversized vapes.
They also found 3.29kg of illegal tobacco, 15,420 cigarettes and 169 items of illegal food.
"Teams are also seeing a huge increase in the availability of oversized and illegal vapes, many of which are targeted at children," councillor Victoria Wilson said.
Ch Insp Giles Parsons warned some illegal vapes "can be dangerous to use and in some cases are made using toxic substances".
Since April 2023, Staffordshire Trading Standards said it has seized 13,171 disposable vapes, almost 90,000 cigarettes and more than 20kg of hand rolling tobacco.
It said the overall seizures had a retail value of about £245,000.
Source: BBC News, 8 February 2024
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Leeds shop has licence revoked as illicit cigarettes sold showing 'scale of problems in Harehills'
A packet of cigarettes was sold for just £5 at Booze 4 U in Harehills when a test purchase was carried out by Trading Standards in October last year, a licensing hearing was told.
The shop at 220 Roundhay Road was then visited in a joint operation involving police, HMRC and council licensing officers.
Officers said vapes containing more than the legal amount of liquid were found at the shop, along with packets of illicit cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco. Leeds City Council’s licensing sub-committee revoked the shop’s premises licence after the allegations were heard at a meeting on Tuesday.
PC Neil Haywood said: “This shows the scale of the problems we are seeing in Harehills.
“This isn’t a few duty-free packets brought back from a holiday. Vast profits are generated.
“There needs to be consequences and a deterrent for operating in this way.”
Concerns were raised that people using illicit vapes may not know what the products contained.
Health improvement specialist Emilia Slezak said more than 20 per cent of people in Harehills smoked, compared to 14.6 per cent of the city’s population as a whole.
She said: “There are a lot of vulnerable young people in that area. Lots of children are heavily exposed to smoking.”
Source: Yorkshire Evening Post, 8 February 2024
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Smoking may soon be banned from outdoor dining in NYC
The city health department wants to ban smoking or vaping at restaurants while dining outdoors. It’ll mean the end of a comforting puff of mango from your friend’s Juul in between bites of pancakes.
Under current law, people can smoke tobacco – or electronic cigarettes that do not contain cannabis – in “contiguous” outdoor dining areas. The restaurants just need to meet certain requirements, including posting signage showing that it is a smoking area.
On Monday, the health department posted a notice that it will move to amend the local law “to no longer allow smoking of tobacco and electronic cigarettes in outdoor dining areas.”
Research has shown New York’s tough tobacco policies have been effective at reducing smoking. One state study released last year showed that cigarette smoking fell from 27.1% in 2000 to just 2.1% among high school students.
Source: Gothamist, 12 February 2024
See also: Fajobi, O. Hunter, L. Peluso, C. BRFSS Brief: Cigarette Smoking, New York State Adults, 2021. No. 2023-05. Albany, NY: New York State Department of Health, Division of Chronic Disease Prevention, June 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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