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** 22 February 2024
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** UK
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** Opinion: Creating a ‘smoke-free generation’ is a unique chance to lead the world in tackling tobacco (#1)
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** Northern Ireland: Obesity: Goal to make healthier food and drink more affordable (#2)
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** International
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** International: EU chief quietly kills ‘nanny-state’ policies with eye on election (#3)
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** UK
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** Opinion: Creating a ‘smoke-free generation’ is a unique chance to lead the world in tackling tobacco
Writing in the telegraph, Kate Dun-Campbell, Specialist Registrar in Public Health, and Adam Briggs, Senior Policy Fellow at The Health Foundation argue that the new smokefree legislation could save lives for generation to come and “MPs should grasp this opportunity with both hands”.
Ahead of the legislation being debated in Parliament in the coming weeks, the authors take the opportunity to recap the harms tobacco brings, not only to smokers but to the country as a whole.
They state that there is no safe level of tobacco consumption, instead it is a uniquely harmful product causing stillbirth, asthma, dementia and cancer and killing two thirds of its users. Dun-Campbell and Briggs write that this warrants a “uniquely restrictive policy approach”.
Beyond the impact on smokers, three quarters of whom wish they never started smoking, the economic impact is described by the authors as “eye-watering”. The authors point out that any duties raised from the sale of tobacco are dwarfed by the cost of lost productivity, health and social caused by smoking which totals an estimated £49 billion.
They go on to argue that there is good evidence that this policy will be effective, quoting the 30 per cent decrease in smoking rates among young people within a year of the legal age to buy tobacco being increased from 16 to 18 in 2007.
Meanwhile, the authors state there is no evidence to back up claims that the ban will drive the illicit market. To the contrary, the authors note that the illicit market has halved since 2000 despite successive tobacco control measures such as banning smoking in public places, plain packaging and continued price increases.
Furthermore, the authors nod to the increased funding for Boarder Force, HRMC and trading standards to deal with illicit markets.
The authors also reference polling from Ipsos and the Health Foundation shows that 69 per cent of the public support the smoke-free generation policy. By party, they found that 74 per cent of Conservative voters and 73 per cent of Labour voters were in support.
Dun-Campbell and Briggs conclude their piece with a warning that the plans are “politically fragile” and that we must be equipped to address unforeseen consequences and build the evidence base for longstanding political support.
The Telegraph, 21 February 2024
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** Northern Ireland: Obesity: Goal to make healthier food and drink more affordable
According to the Department of Health (DoH), almost two-thirds (65%) of adults in Northern Ireland are overweight or obese. Among children and young people that figure is just over one in four.
A strategic framework focusing on levels of obesity was published at the end of 2023. It is open for public consultation until 1 March.
Peter May, DoH permanent secretary, said the new plans intended to "take a whole-system" approach towards "supporting people to achieve a healthy weight".
According to the 10-year plan, obesity and associated issues costs £425m a year.
Health chiefs hope to reduce that figure with more emphasis on the marketing of healthier food and information alongside more "active travel" and sports participation.
The plan aims to reduce promotion of food and drinks high in fat, salt or sugar, make healthy food more visible and accessible in shops and offer consumers better information to help them make informed choices.
"We must seek to reduce the gap in health outcomes between those in the most deprived areas and the Northern Ireland average," the report adds.
Just over half - 56% - of the population consume fewer than the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day - with men less likely than women to reach the recommended level.
Just over 90% of children aged 11 to 18 years of age eat fewer than the recommended five portions a day.
The report also focuses on diabetes. It says that diagnoses of the condition have almost doubled in the last 15 years in Northern Ireland "largely due to the number of cases of type two diabetes".
"While there are several risk factors for type two diabetes, the biggest preventable risk factor is obesity."
Source: BBC News, 21 February 2024
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** International
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** International: EU chief quietly kills ‘nanny-state’ policies with eye on election
Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday that she will be running for a second term as European Commission president. But she’s been preparing the ground — or soothing the beasts — for her re-election for months.
Whether you call it spineless electioneering or consummate pragmatism, what’s clear is that the Commission’s usually steely president is taking the axe to her own agenda, cutting unpopular files that are likely to cost votes at June's European election. Anything straying into Brussels overreach territory faces the chop.
According to eight people with knowledge of policy files, from European Commission officials to diplomats in the Council of the European Union, a range of policy proposals has been watered down, held back, or shelved altogether. The orders came from on high, targeting files on health, climate and agriculture that could provide electoral ammunition to a resurgent political far right.
In the case of agriculture, farmers have become a key target for the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the political formation that orchestrated von der Leyen's appointment to her first term, and is backing her for a second.
Proposals on food, alcohol, and tobacco have also quietly gone missing — all topics where governments have to tread carefully lest they be accused of overbearing nanny-state interventionism.
On other issues where von der Leyen is taking a politically perilous step — like the EU’s push to slash its emissions by 2040 — the chief executive essentially disappeared, letting her climate commissioner absorb the political arrows.
A spokesperson for the Commission said that decisions were always taken “collegially.” When asked by POLITICO about the status of the missing files, from alcohol labelling to sustainable food systems, the spokesperson said that they were variously being “mapped,” “in consultation,” in the evidence gathering stage, or that “preparatory work” was continuing. The spokesperson didn't say any had been permanently scrapped, but didn’t indicate a due date. They suggested that shelved policies might yet make a comeback after the appointment of the next Commission — once the political dust has settled.
Source: Politico, 19 February 2024
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