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** 17 June 2024
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** UK
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** Vape ban could lead to smoking comeback among children, scientists fear (#1)
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** Labour considers largest Whitehall shake-up in decades (#3)
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** Tobacco-like plant engineered to pump out nutrients found in breast milk (#2)
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** International
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** Where Will British American Tobacco Be in 5 Years? (#S)
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** UK
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** Vape ban could lead to smoking comeback among children, scientists fear

Misinformation around the harms of vaping could lead to more children smoking cigarettes if a ban is brought in on e-cigarettes, scientists fear.

Experts caution that children and young adults who have become addicted to nicotine as a result of using vapes could turn to tobacco if politicians succeed in outlawing disposable e-cigarettes.

Scientists warn that many young people do not know that smoking is worse for health than vaping.
Reduced public health messaging about the life-threatening harms of smoking combined with youths regularly seeing stories about health issues said to be caused by vaping has led to teenagers being less informed about the risks of smoking than previous generations, a study found.

Scientists at Anglia Ruskin University interviewed 29 young people aged between 16 and 20 and found that if vapes are banned, many users will switch over to smoking tobacco.

“Our data does suggest that one unintended consequence of a complete ban on disposables would be that young people would choose to purchase illicit products, or potentially use tobacco instead,” said Caitlin Notley, professor of addiction studies at the University of East Anglia and director of the Lifespan Health Research Centre, a study co-author.

“This would clearly be a very bad outcome for public health as our data did demonstrate that some young people viewed vaping and tobacco smoking as interchangeable, both in terms of harm and behaviourally.

“It is a concern that a ban may encourage increased tobacco smoking or increased use of illicit, unregulated, vaping products.”

Writing in the study, published in the journal Addiction, the study authors say vaping has been “normalised” in the population and many young people see no difference between smoking and vaping, despite smoking being much worse for health.

Prof Notley said there has been “years of reduced investment” in public health messaging about the harms of smoking.

This has come at the same time as anecdotal stories of harm from vaping, with the two factors fostering an incorrect belief among young people that vaping and smoking are of equal harm.

“We should invest in education campaigns giving clear evidence-based messages on the harms of tobacco smoking. This, in my opinion, should include messages on the relative risks of vaping – much less harmful than tobacco smoking but not harm free.”

She added that vaping is a useful tool to help people stop smoking and should continue to be seen as a positive transition for smokers to make. “My opinion is that we should have clear education campaigns positioning vaping as a smoking cessation approach,” said Prof Notley.

Source: The Telegraph, 17 June 2024

See also: Young People’s use of Disposable Vapes: A Qualitative Study ([link removed]) , Addiction, May 2024 and ASH survey data on youth vaping ([link removed])


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** Labour considers largest Whitehall shake-up in decades

Labour is planning the biggest Whitehall shake-up in decades, breaking down departmental silos to pursue its missions for government, according to party officials.

The entities, to be headed by Starmer himself, would draw on private sector expertise and may be granted powers to help deliver policy, under plans being overseen by former Whitehall veteran-turned-Labour chief of staff Sue Gray.

The Labour leader’s aim with the Whitehall reorganisation is to “break down silos” and reduce delays that can occur as measures pass between rival Whitehall departments and are split between different budgets, one person said.

Under the proposed overhaul, the Treasury would focus more on attracting investment and driving growth — as well as its traditional fiscal functions, the people added.

Labour is also looking at ways to use the mission-led structure to usher in more private sector and corporate expertise, which could involve scaling up the use of non-executive directors at departments. “There will be opportunities for experienced people from outside government,” said one Labour official.

Source: The Financial times, 14 June 2024

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** Tobacco-like plant engineered to pump out nutrients found in breast milk

Scientists have genetically engineered a close relative of the tobacco plant to pump out nutrients found in human breast milk.

The technology could pave the way for infant formula milk that more closely replicates health benefits of breastfeeding, according to the team behind the work. The study demonstrated that the genetically modified Nicotiana benthamiana could produce complex sugars called human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) that boost healthy gut bacteria and have benefits for the infant immune system.

Dr Patrick Shih, a plant and microbial biologist who led the work at the University of California, Berkeley, said: “Imagine being able to make all the human milk oligosaccharides in a single plant. Then you could just grind up that plant, extract all the oligosaccharides simultaneously and add that directly into infant formula. There would be a lot of challenges in implementation and commercialisation, but this is the big goal that we’re trying to move toward.”

Breast milk contains about 200 different HMOs, and they are the third most abundant solid component of human milk. They are indigestible for the nursing infant, but serve as food for bacteria that colonise the gut during the first weeks of life. By promoting healthy gut bacteria, there is evidence that HMOs reduce the risk of viral and bacterial infections and they may have other health benefits.

Currently, a small handful of HMOs can be manufactured using engineered E coli bacteria and major manufacturers are starting to incorporate them as an ingredient. But many HMOs remain difficult or impossible to produce in this way and isolating the beneficial molecules from other toxic byproducts is a costly process, so only a limited number of baby formulas include them.

In the latest study, published in the journal Nature Food, the scientists reprogrammed the plants’ sugar-making machinery that is responsible for linking together simple sugars, called monosaccharides, into the vast arrays of branched chains that make up complex sugars. The scientists inserted genes designed to produce specific enzymes that are required to assemble basic sugars into a variety of HMOs. The genetically modified plants produced 11 known HMOs.

Shih said: “This could enable not just improved plant-based milks for infants but also for many other facets of adult diet and health. Plants have already been engineered to produce oils and fatty acids that are better for our health. These are just a few of a growing list of ways we can start making designer plants that are tailored to improve human health.”

Source: The Guardian, 17 June 2024

See also: Engineered plants provide a photosynthetic platform for the production of diverse human milk oligosaccharides. ([link removed]) Nature Food, 2024
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** Where Will British American Tobacco Be in 5 Years?

During 2023, management at British American Tobacco changed the way it accounted for its U.S. cigarette brands, which include icons like Camel and Lucky Strike. The company shifted from assuming that the brands would live on forever to assuming they will be worthless in roughly 30 years.

British American Tobacco operates in markets around the world, so there are potential offsets to the continued weakening of the U.S. market. But you can't ignore the trends. The company produced around 700 billion cigarettes in 2018 and just 555 billion in 2023, a huge 21% decline. A decline of another 20% or so over the next five years would bring cigarette production down to around 445 billion.

British American Tobacco has been offsetting volume declines by raising prices. That's allowed it to support its lofty 9.6% dividend yield. There's probably no reason to believe this approach will stop working in the near term, but it clearly can't work in the long term if cigarette volumes go to zero over time.

However, British American Tobacco's non-cigarette business has grown to account for 17% of sales. The goal is to get that figure to 50% by 2035.

The non-cigarette business is now profitable at the division level. It is, more or less, doing well enough to sustain itself. And that will make it easier for British American Tobacco to justify putting more capital into the business. So what's really going on here is a race between the ongoing decline of the core cigarette operation and the growth of the up-and-coming non-cigarette division.

The next five years will probably look very similar to the last couple, with ongoing declines in the cigarette business and further growth in non-cigarette operations. How fast each moves in its respective direction will determine where the stock and the dividend go. If the company doesn't make substantial progress with its long-term transition plans over the next five years, even aggressive investors should start to question their commitment to the stock.

Source: The Motley Fool, 15 June 2024

This is an article published by Motley Fool which is a multimedia financial services company that provides financial advice

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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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