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** 10 June 2024
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** UK
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** Print only: Streeting roasts KFC for ‘pumping out’ junk food near the school gates (#3)
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** Liberal Democrat manifesto launch (#7)
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** Thousands of trees 'killed by cigarette butt fire' (#2)
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** Adverts for UK bookmakers and online casinos ‘need smoking-style warnings’ (#1)
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** Teen’s lung burst after vaping the equivalent of 57 cigarettes a day (#6)
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** Love Island legend reveals he had to be brought back to life after vape addiction caused respiratory failure (#8)
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** UK
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** Print only: Streeting roasts KFC for ‘pumping out’ junk food near the school gates

Food outlets such as KFC could be banned from opening near school under a Labour government, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has said.

Warning that the country had to start taking the obesity crisis more seriously, he said one of his main priorities if Labour won the election would be to tackle the growing burden of disease and ill-health, which was putting unsustainable pressure on hospitals.

“I want to achieve a country where people don’t just live longer, but live well for longer,” he said.

Streeting is also taking aim at the ultra-processed food industry, alongside a wider effort to realign NHS services to focus more on preventative health and better support for patients with more than one condition.

“We have seen KFC taking the mick and dragging councils though the courts so that they can pump fried chicken out by school gates. That doesn’t tell me this is a nation that’s taking obesity seriously,” he said.

In December, an investigation by The Times found 43 councils had their anti-obesity policies challenged by KFC in the last five years. In more than half the cases, council leaders abandoned their plans or watered them down.

Obesity alone costs the NHS about £6.5 billion a year and is the second-biggest preventable cause of cancer. One in four adults and almost a quarter of children aged 10-11 in England are obese.

If Labour wins the election, Streeting will clarify the powers for local councils that allow them to put restrictions on fast-food outlets opening in their area.

“I’ve got quite big ambitions on public health,” the candidate for Ilford North, in Essex, said. “We’ve already committed to a junk-food ban and an advertising ban to stop junk food being targeted at kids, not just on broadcast media, but crucially on digital platforms,” he added.

Streeting said the UK also faced serious challenges from an ageing society, chronic diseases and rising healthcare costs. Part of the solution, he believes, is shifting the focus of the NHS away from treating illness to trying to prevent it.

“The answer to fixing the NHS is to fix the front door to the NHS. We need more primary care, but also we need to think how it can do things differently,” he added.

Labour’s manifesto will be published in days and is expected to include an emphasis on public health. The party has already committed to putting the abandoned smoking-ban legislation through parliament and is planning to double the number of district nurses in training.

Source: The Sunday Times, 9 June 2024

You can find a screenshot of the story here ([link removed]) .
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** Liberal Democrat manifesto launch

The Lib Dems have launched their manifesto today, here is what they have pledged on health:

• Increasing the Public Health Grant, with a proportion of the extra funding set aside for those experiencing the worst health inequalities to co-produce plans for their communities.

•Establishing a ‘Health Creation Unit’ in the Cabinet Office to lead work across government to improve the nation’s health and tackle health inequalities.

•Introducing regulations to halt the dangerous use of vapes by children while recognising their role in smoking cessation for adults, and banning the sale of single-use vapes.

•Introducing a new levy on tobacco company profits to help fund healthcare and smoking cessation services.

•Protecting children from exposure to junk food by supporting local authorities to restrict outdoor advertising and restricting TV advertising to post-watershed.

•Extending the soft drinks levy to juice-based and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar.

•Tackling air pollution and poor air quality in public buildings with a Clean Air Act, as set out in chapter 12.

You can read their full manifesto here ([link removed]) .
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** Thousands of trees 'killed by cigarette butt fire'

A cigarette butt is suspected to have caused a forest fire that is believed to have killed thousands of young trees.

Nests and charred wood have been found after flames ripped through thousands of trees in Harrow Hill in the Forest of Dean following a "short hot spell" in May.

Leoni Dawson, community ranger for Forestry England, said they were worried "this whole place is dead and gone".

It is thought no deer or boar were harmed due to a deer fence enclosing the area, but concerns remain for insects, reptiles, small mammals and bird nests.

Describing the site, Ms Dawson said: "You can see how dry it is, how brown and dead it is."

She said their working assumption was the fire, likely started by a cigarette stub, had spread quickly because it was so dry after a few days of warm sunshine.

To prevent a similar situation from happening again, Ms Dawson urged visitors to be responsible.

"Please do not have barbecues, especially the little disposable ones, they are so dangerous," she said.

"If you're going to smoke, carry a little pouch with you that you can put your butts in so you can dispose of them properly when you get home."

Anyone who noticed a forest fire was advised to get to safety before calling 999, with a what3words location that was particularly helpful to fire crews, she added.

Source: BBC, 10 June 2024
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** Adverts for UK bookmakers and online casinos ‘need smoking-style warnings’

Adverts for bookmakers and online casinos should carry smoking-style warnings, the UK’s leading gambling charity has said, as it warned that a marketing surge during the Euro 2024 football tournament could make it harder for people to cut down or quit.

GambleAware called for an end to the industry-approved “Take Time To Think” slogan, which appears on gambling adverts, labelling the message “inadequate”.

Instead, the charity has drawn up its own guidelines spurred by research suggesting that wall-to-wall betting adverts, which typically increase significantly during major football tournaments, make it harder for people with a gambling problem to stop.

GambleAware is funded by donations from the industry and has faced scrutiny over concerns that the source of its funding risks affecting its independence. However, its call to scrap the “Take Time To Think” message could now put the charity on a collision course with industry operators, who crafted the slogan via their lobby group, the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC).

The message replaced “When the fun stops, stop”, which was also widely criticised. The BGC defended its “Take Time To Think” slogan, saying it had been launched after consultation with the government, academics and GambleAware itself to find the most “effective way of encouraging responsible betting”.

But GambleAware now wants the industry’s ads to include its own new set of “clear” health warnings, featuring slogans such as “Gambling can be addictive” and “Gambling comes at a cost”.

Of those experiencing problems with gambling, more than half say that seeing ads make it hard for them to cut down, according to a YouGov survey for GambleAware. A similar number (55%) said they felt unable to escape adverts about gambling.

“We know that gambling advertising can contribute to the normalisation of gambling as just a bit of ‘harmless fun’,” said Alexia Clifford, chief communications officer at GambleAware. “We want to see stronger restrictions on gambling advertising to protect people from harm.

“We hope the health warnings and clear signposting set out in these new guidelines will ensure that people are clear about the risks of gambling and where to go for help and support should they need it.”

Donations to GambleAware from the industry, which reached £50m last year, are technically voluntary, although the system is well established and has so far allowed operators to avoid being forced to pay a mandatory levy.

The Conservative government announced plans to replace the voluntary system with a statutory levy to raise more funds for research, education and treatment, as part of a white paper on gambling reform published last year.

However, the unfinished proposal has been left up in the air by Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a summer election. Labour has not said whether it would push the levy plan through if it wins the general election.

Source: The Guardian, 10 June 2024
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** Teen’s lung burst after vaping the equivalent of 57 cigarettes a day

Mark Blythe ‘cried like a baby’ when he got a call saying his daughter Kyla, 17, had collapsed and turned ‘blue’ during a sleepover at a friend’s house early on May 11.

Kyla thought her habit was ‘harmless’ until that morning when her lung collapsed because excessive vaping had burst a small air blister known as a pulmonary bleb on her lungs.

After nearly going into cardiac arrest, Kyla underwent a five-and-a-half-hour surgery to remove part of her lung.

Vaping since 15 when she saw schoolmates pick it up, Kyla had been ploughing through an entire 4,000-puff vape each week.

That’s the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week, or 57 a day.

Source: Metro, 9 June 2024

See also: ASH – Vaping Mythbuster ([link removed])
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** Love Island legend reveals he had to be brought back to life after vape addiction caused respiratory failure

Love Island legend Paul Danan had to be brought back to life after suffering respiratory failure triggered by his addiction to vapes.

The 45-year-old, who took up the habit after years of smoking, collapsed last month and had to be given CPR before he was rushed to hospital.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun on Sunday, the former Hollyoaks actor, who was taken ill at his parents’ home, said: “I was dead — it’s a miracle I’m here.”

He added: “I’m upstairs puffing away on my vape then suddenly I lost my breath and collapsed. My family called for an ambulance and started giving me CPR, then police arrived and took over before paramedics took me to hospital. I was on a machine in ICU and ended up with pneumonia.

My family were warned I might not make it through the night. I’m so lucky.”

Experts say vaping is better for users than smoking, but the NHS says it “is not completely harmless” and only recommends it for adult smokers trying to give up.

Source: The Sun, 8 June 2024

See also: ASH – Vaping Mythbuster ([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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