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Editorial: Any plan to make smoking obsolete is the right step
In this Nature editorial, the authors discus the recent Tobacco and Vapes Bill which will see the age of sale for tobacco products increase by one year every year so that no one born on or after the 1st of January 2009 will ever be legally able to buy cigarettes and the effect this could have on smoking prevalence in the UK but also abroad.
They write about the Khan review, which was published in response to how the government could make smoking obsolete. In this review, Javed Khan recommended that the age of sale for tobacco products increase by one year every year so that no one born on or after the 1st of January 2009 will ever be legally able to buy cigarettes and.
The author states that this policy is favoured by “researchers, clinicians, policymakers and the leaders of all major UK political parties” but that there are some practical details that need to be thought about. For instance, modelling finds that smoking prevalence will fall but that households with lower incomes generally have more smokers and as such will require additional targeted support. They also write that “vigilance is needed to prevent the law from being undermined” as was the case in New Zealand where a new government repealed the law, stating it was infringing on an individual’s free choice.
The journal goes on to state that the tobacco industry prioritises its activity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) rather than in high income countries where sales have been falling for some time now. The paper points to the fact that “around 1.3 billion people smoke, and 80% of them are in LMICs”. But the journal states that the tobacco industry may have cause for concern because “one evidence-informed law to end smoking for future generations” in one country could inspire other countries to do the same.
It concludes by saying that the UK is right to introduce this ban and that tobacco would never be permitted if it was introduced today.
Source: Nature, 23 April 2024
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Opinion: Britain’s smoking ban just another blow for parliament’s Pipe and Cigar Club
Writing for POLITICO, Esther Webber, Senior UK correspondent at POLITICO, writes about the history of the Pipe and Cigar Club and parliamentarians’ relationship with smoking over time.
Webber states that the club now only reportedly meets once a year for Christmas lunch, but that in the past it had many more well-known members from various parties who, following the vote in 2006 to ban smoking in public places, “fought a rearguard action to exempt private clubs from the ban”.
Webber points to quotes from Matthew Parris, a Times columnist and Tory MP in the 1980s, who stated that smoking rooms were “very masculine”, and that the tobacco smoke and brandy fumes made it feel like “an old-fashioned gentleman’s club”.
Webber states that this culture lasted right up until the smoking ban and indeed after it too. Lauren McEvatt, a special adviser for a Conservative MP in the mid-2000s writes of Bellamy’s bar where you had to “part the smoke as you walked in”.
Webber reports that smoking is a useful intelligence-gathering tool used by journalists, with one saying that people open up more when smoking together outside in the cold and wet, although it is now difficult to find smokers “who are out and proud”.
Kevin Barron, a former Labour MP who was involved in the 2007 smoking ban legislation, states that any “nostalgia for smoke-filled rooms is misplaced”. He adds that addiction to cigarettes gets most smokers when they are young and that 50% of long-term smokers are likely to die a premature death.
Webber reports on the 2nd reading of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. 57 Conservative MPs voted against and an additional 106 abstained with the primary reasons being that it was unworkable or “un-Conservative”.
Despite this opposition, the legislation is “almost certain to pass” due to the Labour party whipping in favour.
Source: POLITICO, 19 April 2024
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What is the UK smoking ban, how will it work and when will it start?
MPs have voted to back the government's plans to create a "smoke-free generation" and reduce the number of smoking-related deaths.
The restrictions will apply to the sale of cigarettes in the UK rather than the act of smoking itself.
Under the new law, each year the legal age for cigarette sales - currently 18 - will increase by one year.
It means that people born in or after 2009 will never be able to legally buy cigarettes.
The law will not affect those who are already allowed to buy cigarettes.
The government says it will spend £30m on enforcement, which will include tackling the availability of cigarettes on the black market.
The government aims to have the new system in force by 2027.
Mr Sunak wants to work with the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to introduce the legislation across the UK.
The government says smoking is still the number one preventable cause of death, disability and ill health, causing about 80,000 deaths per year across the UK and costing the NHS and the economy an estimated £17bn every year.
According to the government, creating a "smoke-free generation" could prevent more than 470,000 cases of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other diseases by the end of the century.
Vaping is too recent an activity for any long-term effects to have become clear but the NHS says it is "unlikely to be totally harmless".
The government has already announced plans to ban disposable vapes in England as soon as April 2025 and it hopes to extend this ban across the UK as well.
The contents, flavours and packaging of nicotine vapes will also be restricted in order to make them less attractive to children. A new tax on vaping will be introduced from October 2026.
Vaping alternatives - such as nicotine pouches - will also be outlawed for children.
Source: BBC, 24 April 2024
See also: Smokefree Action Coalition - Smokefree Generation FAQs
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Opinion: Alcohol harm is increasing – the government needs to act now
Writing for the Telegraph, Talia Boshari, Public Health Registrar at the Health Foundation and Adam Briggs, a Public Health Consultant also at the Health Foundation, discuss the need for government action on alcohol and in particular minimum unit pricing (MUP), which would reduce alcohol related deaths and harm.
The authors point to evidence from Scotland, where MUP has been in place for five years, which finds that MUP has reduced alcohol consumption and resulted in fewer deaths. As such, the Scottish government have decided to continue with the policy at an increased price of 65p rather than 50p per unit. Wales and Northern Ireland have also recently introduced the measure, making England the odd one out with no national alcohol strategy.
Boshari and Briggs write that since 2019, alcohol deaths have risen by more than a third in England. Additionally, it is widely recognised that alcohol increases the risk of some of the major conditions keeping people ill and off work, such as cardiovascular disease, cancers including breast, mouth and bowel cancer, and mental ill health”. Despite this, alcohol marketing is still common place.
Alcohol harm is not spread equally, with people in deprived areas experiencing greater harms and bearing greater costs. The authors add that alcohol deaths in deprived areas of the country are twice that of richer parts.
The authors write that alcohol is also a huge drain on the NHS, “accounting for nearly 350,000 hospital admissions each year in England and costing the NHS an estimated £3.5 billion annually”. There are also indirect costs through unemployment, crime and reduced productivity.
With all this in mind, the authors question why England hasn’t had an alcohol strategy since 2012, especially now that there is growing evidence that MUP works. They suggest that, as was the case with the tobacco industry interfering in tobacco control policy, perhaps the drinks industry are interfering in government regulation.
The authors conclude by saying that “England is in desperate need of a coherent alcohol strategy”, which would include preventative measures such as MUP as well as additional support for those living with alcohol dependency.
Source: The Telegraph, 23 April 2024
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