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Parliamentarians insist Smokefree Generation Bill is workable
A YouGov poll for ASH published today (28 February) found that 71% of adults support the goal of making Britain a country where no-one smokes (12% are opposed).
Support is strongest among those who intend to vote for the three main parties in the general election (72% of those intending to vote Conservative, 76% Labour and 76% Lib Dem).
Bob Blackman CBE MP (Conservative), chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health, said: “Backbenchers have always led the way on tobacco legislation, from banning advertising, to making public places smokefree and putting tobacco in standard packs.
“However, this time there is a clock ticking and we need the government to expedite the passage of the Bill to ensure that it passes into law before the general election.
“He will have the strong support of backbenchers from right across both Houses of Parliament.”
Mary Kelly Foy MP (Labour) vice chair of the APPG on Smoking and Health said: “There is a strong consensus right across Parliament that we must end smoking and save lives.
“That is why Labour will put country before party, lending its votes to the government to get this legislation passed before the next election.
“There is no more time to waste. It is for the government to set the timetable to ensure this is achieved, and it will have Labour’s support in doing so.”
Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat) vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health said: “Opponents of this legislation argue that it is not for government to intervene in people’s so-called ‘lifestyle choices’.
“But smoking is not a ‘lifestyle choice’ it is an addiction and one that is hard to escape. Two-thirds of those people trying just one cigarette, usually as children, go on to become daily smokers, and daily smokers are addicted smokers.
“That is why this legislation has strong public as well as parliamentary support.”
Also today health leaders are briefing parliamentarians on the case for ending cigarette sales to those born on or after 1 January 2009.
Their brief, endorsed by over 30 health organisations including medical royal colleges, charities, and public health organisations, rebuts claims that the legislation is unenforceable.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “Smoking is the silent killer that hides in plain sight.
“Ending this scourge on society is long overdue. The pro-smoking lobby protests that raising the age of sale one year every year is unenforceable, exactly what they said about the smoking ban nearly two decades ago.
“They were wrong then and they’re wrong now. The public aren’t fooled, they support raising the age of sale, just as they did the smoking ban, because they know it’s needed, wanted and workable.”
Source: Talking Retail, 28 February 2024
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Majority of smokers think vaping is more harmful than cigarettes
More than half of smokers in England wrongly believe that vaping is more or as harmful as smoking, according to a major study.
Researchers at University College London surveyed 28,393 smokers in England between 2014 and 2023.
They found that public perceptions of vapes had worsened considerably over the past decade, with an increase in the perceived harm of e-cigarettes since 2021.
The UCL team used data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, in which around 1,700 adults in England were interviewed each month.
In 2014, public perceptions of vapes were more favourable, with 44 per cent of smokers regarding them as less harmful than cigarettes, and only 11 per cent saying e-cigarettes were more harmful.
A total of 57 per cent of respondents said they thought that vaping was equally as harmful as smoking in June 2023, while just 27 per cent believed vapes were less harmful.
People aged under 35 were most likely to believe that vapes were more harmful than cigarettes, despite this age group being the biggest users of vapes.
The study's lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare, said: "These findings have important implications for public health. The risks of vaping are much lower than the risks of smoking and this isn’t being clearly communicated to people.
“This misperception is a health risk in and of itself, as it may discourage smokers from substantially reducing their harm by switching to e-cigarettes. It may also encourage some young people who use e-cigarettes to take up smoking for the first time, if they believe the harms are comparable."
Commenting on the study, Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the charity ASH, said: “There are millions of smokers who now believe vaping is more than or equally harmful as smoking, when the reverse is true, and e-cigarettes are the most effective and easily available quitting aid.
“The tragedy is that as a result many millions of smokers may not try vaping and carry on smoking instead, continuing to put themselves at serious risk of cancers, respiratory and heart disease, followed by premature death.”
Source: London Evening Standard, 28 February 2024
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FTSE 100 flat as tobacco shares knocked by vaping tax reports
London’s top index has lagged behind European peers as reports of a new vaping tax weighed on Imperial Brands.
Imperial Brands was the biggest faller of the day with its share price down by about 5% amid reports that the UK Government is considering announcing a new tax on vapes at the Budget announcement next week.
Source: The Evening Standard, 28 February 2024
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Is smoking ‘cool’ again? Why cigarettes have been dominating on our screens and catwalks
Writing in the Independent, journalist Olivia Petter, explores the unexpected resurgence of cigarettes in popular culture in 2024. Despite societal shifts towards wellness and clean aesthetics, she suggests that smoking seems to have become "cool" again, as evidenced by recent fashion shows and films.
Designers like Edward Crutchley and Sinead Gorey incorporate cigarettes as accessories in their collections, with Crutchley “glamorising” them during his catwalk shows at London Fashion Week. Speaking to the Independent Crutchley said “There was no great concept or statement behind it, I thought it would be something irreverent to lighten the mood a little.”
Gorey states that the inclusion of cigarettes in her fashion shows was a nod to the experience of being a teenager in the noughties. Petter considers that nostalgia for this era could have driven some of the recent surge in cigarettes in pop culture.
Cigarettes have also found their way onto the big screen. Petter lists some of the past years most talked about films which all included large amounts of on screen smoking such as Oppenheimer, Maestro and Saltburn. Petter quotes research from Smokefree Media which has found that despite an overall reduction in the depiction of smoking in films over the past few years, there was a 2 percent increase between 2022 and 2023.
Petter questions this apparent turn around in trends, especially in the face of continued awareness of the health implications of smoking: “last time we checked, smoking was still the cause of around seven out of every 10 cases of lung cancer, with around 76,000 people in the UK dying from the habit each year, according to the NHS.” Petter also highlights a new study from University College London (UCL) which found an increase in smoking among 18- to 24-year-olds in England during the pandemic.
For Petter, the “thing that unites all of these references is not the fetishisation of a habit that may or may not turn your insides to tar.” Instead, she argues that people are seeking to embody the nostalgia they feel for the late 90s and noughties and “what smoking represents when we look back on the past”.
Source: The Independent, 29 February 2024
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Ultra-processed food raises risk of cancer, diabetes — and depression
Eating lots of ultra-processed food may send you to an early grave and make you depressed and anxious, a review of evidence has concluded.
Mass-produced products such as ready meals, sugary breakfast cereal and chocolate bars are linked to 32 damaging health outcomes, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. This includes physical conditions, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, as well as mental health disorders including depression and anxiety.
Academics in Australia examined data from previous studies around the world involving nearly ten million people, who were divided into groups based on their intake of ultra-processed food. Those who ate the most were found to be at a 21 per cent greater risk of dying young and a 50 per cent greater risk of dying from heart disease.
The study also found that the risk of mental health problems tended to increase the more such food people ate. It said high consumption was linked to a 22 per cent greater risk of depression, and about 50 per cent higher risk of anxiety and poor sleep. Experts believe this is because the foods may cause systemic inflammation in the body and disrupt the gut microbiome, which influences depression and anxiety risk.
Physical health problems including type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart disease also increase along with consumption of the foods.
More than half of the typical British daily diet is made up of ultra-processed food, more than any other country in Europe. Campaigners including the author Dr Chris van Tulleken and the former government food tsar Henry Dimbleby are calling for tobacco-style restrictions to be introduced.
Scientists are divided about why they seem to be bad for health. Some believe that the industrial processing is itself inherently harmful and makes the food addictive. Others think the foods are simply tasty and high in calories, cautioning that it is important not to demonise all ultra-processed food, which can form part of a healthy diet.
People who eat lots of such foods also tend to have unhealthy lifestyles in general, making it hard to prove cause and effect.
Source: The Times, 28 February 2024
See also: Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses
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US: How cannabis use can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke
Cannabis has a significant association with increased odds of stroke and heart attack among adults, including those who don’t use tobacco.
In addition, the odds of having a stroke or heart attack increases among those who use cannabis more frequently.
Those are the findings of a study published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.
In their study, researchers analysed the results of an annual survey of 430,000 adults in the United States from 2016 through 2020.
The study authors said in a statement that the most common method of cannabis use among those studied was smoking, followed by eating and vaporizing the drug.
The increase of combined risk of stroke, heart attack, and coronary heart disease was similar to the risk among adults who never used e-cigarettes but did use cannabis.
“Despite common use, little is known about the risks of cannabis use and, in particular, the cardiovascular disease risks,” said Abra Jeffers, PhD, a lead study author and a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in the statement. “The perceptions of the harmfulness of smoking cannabis are decreasing, and people have not considered cannabis use dangerous to their health. However, previous research suggested that cannabis could be associated with cardiovascular disease. In addition, smoking cannabis — the predominant method of use — may pose additional risks because particulate matter is inhaled.”
With more frequent use (more days per month), the odds of adverse outcomes were higher. The results were similar after controlling for other cardiovascular risk factors, including alcohol use, tobacco and/or e-cigarette use, physical activity, body mass index, and type 2 diabetes.
Non-users had a lower risk of heart issues than both daily and non-daily cannabis users. Daily users were 25% more likely to suffer a heart attack than non-users.
Daily cannabis users were also 42% more likely to have a stroke compared to non-users. There was also a lower risk for less-than-daily users.
Cannabis use was associated with 36% higher odds for premature stroke, heart attack, and cardiovascular disease among younger adults at risk for premature cardiovascular disease, regardless of whether they also used traditional tobacco products or not.
Source: Medical News Today, 28 February 2024
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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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