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** 23 May 2024
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** UK
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** In full: Rishi Sunak's and Keir Starmer's election statements (#3)
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** General Election 2024: What happens now an election has been called? (#7)
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** Doctors call for funding reform to tackle health disparities across England (#2)
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** Link of the week
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** USA: Use nicotine, win an iPad! Zyn’s viral rewards program fuels addiction fears (#6)
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** UK
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** In full: Rishi Sunak's and Keir Starmer's election statements
Rishi Sunak has fired the starting gun on a general election that will take place on 4 July.
In a speech in a rain-soaked Downing Street, the prime minister said it was "the moment for Britain to choose its future".
Mr Sunak said he was “proud of what we have achieved together, the bold actions we have taken and I'm confident about what we can do in the future.”
He said that should the Conservatives be successful and form the next government, he would remain committed to ensuring “that the next generation grows up smoke free.”
Source: BBC news, 22 May 2024
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** General Election 2024: What happens now an election has been called?
The prime minister has been saying for months he would call a vote for the "second half of the year", and it will now be held on Thursday, 4 July.
There is usually a period of several days, known as "wash-up", between an election being called and the dissolution of parliament.
During "wash-up", parliament will continue as normal, but any parliamentary business not completed by the end of that time will not enter into law and cannot be continued into the next parliament.
This normally leads to a rush to pass legislation through parliament to get it onto the statute book, which often means parties having to work together to agree on which bills they will support.
Source: Sky News, 22 May 2024
Editorial note: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill could be included in this wash up period.
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** Doctors call for funding reform to tackle health disparities across England
Ministers must “radically” reform the way GP funding is allocated across the country because it results in the poorest areas receiving inadequate healthcare, family doctors have warned.
The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) wrote in an open letter that the Carr-Hill formula, which has been used to allocated core GP funding since 2004, is outdated as it does not equitably distribute funds and as a result has contributed to the widening of health inequalities across the country.
They said that the formula, which is used to determine how much money for each patient is allocated to each GP practice, does not adequately take into account deprivation levels of a local area. Previous studies had found that for every 10% increase in a practice’s deprivation level, payments only increased by 0.06%. Furthermore, GP practices in areas with the highest levels of deprivation have on average 300 more patients for each GP than those in more affluent areas.
The letter, with its co-signatories including the Health Foundation, the NHS Confederation’s Primary Care Network, and the charity National Voices, added that typically, “practices in the areas of greatest deprivation have patients with more complex needs, yet don’t receive proportional funding to address those additional needs”.
The RCGP called on the government for a “radical change” to general practice funding, to allow for funds to be channelled into areas of the greatest need and to “better take into account the needs of different communities”. They said this change was essential for tackling the current health disparities that exist across England.
Source: The Guardian, 22 May 2024
See also: RCGP – Health Inequalities joint statement ([link removed])
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** International
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** USA: Use nicotine, win an iPad! Zyn’s viral rewards program fuels addiction fears
Cigarette-branded swag has long been the cool kid apparel of choice – walk a block of any artsy neighborhood in the US, and you’ll probably peep a red Marlboro baseball cap or green-and-white striped Newport fanny pack. For the latest form of nicotine promotion that concerns parents and public health advocates, check out Zyn’s reward program.
The flavored nicotine pouch has become a gen Z status symbol, with Fortune reporting that users are hoarding Zyn containers, which come emblazoned with QR codes that can be used to collect points – 15 points per can, up to 60 points per month. Redeeming these points on Zyn’s website unlocks items like iPads, Dyson Airwraps, KitchenAid mixers, and Tory Burch tote bags.
Ostensibly, tobacco-free nicotine pouches such as Zyn aim to help cigarette smokers ages 21 or over kick their habit. Users place a pouch in between their lips and gums, where it releases nicotine into the bloodstream. But the smokeless design and popularity of Zyn on social media – in no small part due to its rewards program – mean that younger non-smokers are trying the packs as well.
CNN reported that Philip Morris International, which owns Zyn, shipped 350m cans of pouches last year, a 62% increase in the US compared with 2022. It’s earned the skepticism of the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, who has called for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate Zyn’s health impact on and apparent marketing toward young people. “I’m delivering a warning to parents, because these nicotine pouches seem to lock their sights on young kids – teenagers, and even lower – and then use the social media to hook ’em,” Schumer said in January.
Branded merch from cigarette and tobacco companies is now prohibited by the FDA – and Philip Morris says it no longer sells Zyn-branded swag, though Zynfluencers are still able to scoop it up on second-hand retail sites like eBay. “But the proliferation of social media posts on Zyn’s rewards program functions in the same way,” says Lauren Czaplicki, an associate scientist at the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “You see people showing their prizes alongside packs of Zyn or even just showing the stacks of empty Zyn packs that they are going to redeem. This is free advertising for the company.”
It’s the gamification of nicotine use, according to Czaplicki. “The viral buzz and high value prizes really drive purchasing and consumption, which is worrying,” she said. “Then you have the potential for people to get addicted to the product and to playing the rewards program game, and the two mutually reinforce each other.”
Source: Guardian, 20 May 2024
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