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** 10 May 2024
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** UK
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** York stop smoking service to expand with government funding (#3)
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** Smokers costing Kent £1.3bn a year in fires, care costs and lost productivity – report (#7)
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** Link of the week
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** Alcohol and the Heart: Explained (#2)
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** New ASH Ready Reckoner Published (#6)
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** UK
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** York stop smoking service to expand with government funding
City of York Council has been awarded nearly £200,000 of government funding to help residents quit smoking.
The cash will help expand its quitting service to help people over the next five years, as figures showed the habit was costing the city £109m a year.
The Health Trainers team offers advice and free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or e-cigarettes to people wanting to kick the habit.
Peter Roderick, director of public health at the council, praised the funding as he noted that "smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK".
He said: "As soon as 48 hours after quitting smoking, your sense of taste and smell is already improving, then within two weeks, blood pumps better through your heart, and after three months, coughing, wheezing or breathing problems will improve as your lung function increases by up to 10%."
The council said its Health Trainers team had a 74% success rate of people not smoking four weeks after their "quit date".
The £195,000 in funding was announced as figures from public health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) showed smoking was costing York £109m a year.
This includes a £66.1m impact on local productivity, as smoking "undermines the health of people during working age with some dying before they reach retirement".
ASH also highlighted £37.7m in social care costs, including the cost of unmet care needs and informal carers, and general healthcare costs totalling £4.65m.
Source: BBC News, 9 May 2024
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Read Here ([link removed])
** Smokers costing Kent £1.3bn a year in fires, care costs and lost productivity – report
Kent’s smokers are costing the county £1.3 billion a year, new figures have revealed.
The shocking statistic covers lost productivity, care costs and fires caused by people puffing on tobacco products.
It comes in a report to go before the Kent County Council (KCC) Health Reform and Public Health cabinet committee next week (May 14).
The paper states that £770 million is lost in productivity; social care costs of £427m; health care costing £52m and the price of smoking-related fires is £8m.
The costings were provided by the anti-smoking lobby group, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
The KCC papers state: “The additional funding is a great opportunity for KCC to increase and enhance the stop smoking service offer for Kent residents and therefore improve outcomes (measured through four-week quits).
“The funding will be used to build demand and capacity in stop smoking services and increase targeting.”
ASH says the cost of smoking to local communities in the UK is around £93bn and smokers spend on average £2,436 a year on tobacco products.
The group says: “People who smoke in England spent £16bn in total on tobacco, lining the pockets of the tobacco manufacturers.”
The number of smokers in Kent represents about 13.1% of the population, slightly ahead of the national average of 12.9%.
Source: Kent Online, 10 My 2024
See also: ASH Ready Reckoner ([link removed])
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Read Here ([link removed])
** Link of the week
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** Alcohol and the Heart: Explained
The Institute of Alcohol Studies has released a new video about the cardiovascular issues alcohol causes, why observational studies suggest alcohol is good for the heart, and how the alcohol industry has tried to influence worldwide research on the topic.
They write “cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer across the globe, causing 20 million deaths every year. And drinking alcohol directly contributes to cardiovascular disease. Yet for many years, the idea that alcohol, particularly red wine, is good for the heart has inundated our media, policy debates, and been spread by industry misinformation. Over the past decade, new study designs have improved our understanding, concluding with the World Heart Federation stating that: “Contrary to popular opinion, alcohol is not good for the heart”.”
Read the World Heart Federation's policy briefing for more information: WHF-Policy-Brief-Alcohol.pdf (world-heart-federation.org) ([link removed])
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Read Here ([link removed])
** New ASH Ready Reckoner Published
On Thursday ASH published its new Ready Reckoner tool. This year it is much easier to access than in previous years and we hope people will make use of this new functionality. The reckoner is now hosted online rather than in an embedded excel document, so it is much easier to access than in previous years.
The ASH Ready Reckoner is an easy-to-use cost calculator, allowing you to see the costs of smoking to society. The tangible wider societal costs of smoking in England are £46.3 Bn and these are broken down into individual local authorities, combined authorities, regions, and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). Estimates are also available for parliamentary constituencies and wards.
Access the Ready Reckoner here ([link removed])
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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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