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** 20 February 2024
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** UK
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** Smoking ban: 10 million fewer cigarettes will be smoked each day by 2040 (#1)
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** Opinion: How council funding impacts public health (#2)
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** Alcohol is fuelling ill health and worsening risks from smoking and obesity (#3)
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** UK
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** Smoking ban: 10 million fewer cigarettes will be smoked each day by 2040
Ten million fewer cigarettes will be smoked each day by 2040 under the government’s new generational smoking ban, new analysis shows.
Historic legislation will be put before MPs this week, making it illegal to ever sell tobacco to those born after January 1, 2009, who are presently aged 15 and under.
The ban will mean that by 2040, nobody under the age of 31 will have ever been able to smoke legally in the UK. Modelling by Cancer Research UK has examined the impact of banning this generation of young adults from ever taking up smoking.
About one in seven adults in their twenties smoke cigarettes, getting through nine a day on average. If existing trends were to continue, then by 2040 about 10.2 million cigarettes a day would be smoked each day by more than one million adults aged 30 and under.
Freeing this generation from the burden of tobacco will prevent tens of thousands of cases of smoking-related diseases, analysis shows.
Dr Ian Walker, the executive director of policy at Cancer Research UK, said: “These new statistics show the impact the age-of-sale legislation could have looking 16 years into our future. I have witnessed the devastating impact smoking-related cancers can have on a family and never want my children to have access to tobacco products.
“Nothing would have a bigger impact on reducing the number of preventable deaths in the UK than ending smoking. That’s why we’re calling on all MPs to vote in favour of this legislation. Together with funding for vital cessation services, it could give the UK the chance to become a world leader, by creating the first ever smoke free generation.”
The policy of banning smoking has been welcomed almost universally by health and medical groups, who say it is the biggest milestone in public health for decades. Figures show that over 80 per cent of smokers started before they turned 20. Most smokers want to quit, but cannot due to an addiction to nicotine that started in their teenage years.
Source: The Times, 18 February 2024
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** Opinion: How council funding impacts public health
Writing in the New Statesman, Gwen Nightingale and Katherine Merrifield, assistant directors at the Health Foundation, discuss the crucial role that local government play in establishing “the building blocks” that make people healthy such as access to decent housing, good education and employment and access to green spaces. The authors write that it has been a challenging time for councils, and many are struggling to deliver statutory services, let alone invest in these building blocks. They also point to research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which showed that local councils are not being allocated funding according to the needs of the area.
Nightingale and Merrifield state that funding should be aligned with need, to ensure that those with more challenging circumstances have the resources needed to continue to provide an environment that allows residents to thrive. The authors say that this is the case when it comes to the NHS, where additional funding is provided to areas with greater need but there is not this focus when it comes to funding local councils. This results in a situation where “the most deprived fifth of areas receive on average 9 per cent less local government funding (£92 per person) than their share of needs”. This amount would play a significant role in allowing councils to continue providing “valuable non-statutory services that contribute to people’s health”.
Concluding, Nightingale and Merrifield write that adequately funded councils have the ability to play a “transformative role” in improving health at a population level, but to do this funding should be tailored to an area’s needs.
Source: The New Statesman, 19 February 2024
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** Alcohol is fuelling ill health and worsening risks from smoking and obesity
Alcohol is fuelling its own harms – but also increasing the spread of cancers from smoking and obesity. That’s the warning from North East health campaigners for Cancer Prevention Action Week (20-26 Feb).
Fresh and Balance, the North East tobacco and alcohol programme, say there has never been a more urgent time to address rising alcohol harm in England.
Alcohol is a group one carcinogen and a direct cause of at least seven types of cancer, including breast and bowel cancer, but as few as 1 in 3 people in the North East and 1 in 10 people nationally are aware of the cancer link.
Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance, said: “If you regularly drink alcohol, cutting down is really important way to reduce the risks from cancer, heart disease and liver disease.
“But we also know alcohol can raise the cancer risks further with regards to both smoking and obesity. Those risks can start from any level of regular drinking and there is no “safe” level.
“With no health labels or national awareness raising campaigns, people who drink are being kept in the dark around cancer risks. And without action on price, cheap alcohol is enabling people to drink at dangerous levels for around £5.
“We welcome action happening now to create a smokefree generation but where is that action for alcohol?”
Alice Wiseman, Director of Public Health for Gateshead and Alcohol Prevention Lead for Association of Directors of Public Health North East, said: “Alcohol is so culturally ingrained in our culture – from sports sponsorship to soap operas. We would never recommend people “smoke responsibly” but that's exactly what we have for alcohol.
“If we are really serious about preventing cancer and improving health in our local communities, we need to rethink alcohol’s role in UK society and the lack of national appetite to address its harms.
“The time is long overdue for a clear national approach to addressing all unhealthy products so that we can put an end to the undue amount of influence industries have over our health so they can keep profits flowing.”
The last national strategy to tackle alcohol harm was published in 2012 by the Coalition Government, setting out 30 commitments and actions to reduce alcohol harm, including reducing the availability of cheap alcohol through duty rises and minimum unit pricing.
Source: Metro Radio, 20 February 2024
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