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** 17 April 2020
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** UK
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** Quit smoking and keep a smokefree home during coronavirus crisis, authority urges Bexley residents (#1)
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** Scotland: Letter: WHO warns against partnership with tobacco industry (#2)
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** Link of the week
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** Tobacco and COVID-19: It’s more important than ever to help patients quit (#3)
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** UK
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** A south east London council has appealed to residents to quit smoking or switch to vaping during the coronavirus outbreak to help reduce pressure on health services.
Last month Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that it was “abundantly clear from the research into previous coronaviruses that smoking makes the impact of a coronavirus worse”.
Bexley Council urges that “maintaining a smokefree home is essential” during the pandemic, with Bexley’s schools closed and children isolating at home with their parents.
“Smoking in the home exposes children to toxic cigarette smoke and increases the risk of serious health conditions and respiratory infections,” the authority said, adding that quitting would reduce the burden on a health system “which is already under great strain”.
“People with existing respiratory conditions, like COPD, are more susceptible to infections like coronavirus. It is really important that people living with COPD who still smoke access quit support.”
On e-cigarettes, the council said: “There have been suggestions in some media sources that e-cigarette use could increase risks from coronavirus. There is no clear evidence for this and we continue to encourage smokers to think about switching to e-cigarettes to reduce their risk of respiratory infections.”
Source: News Shopper, 16 April 2020
See also:
Today is the Day website ([link removed])
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** In a letter to the Herald Scotland, John Dunlop, Ayr said:
“THE World Health Organisation last week, in response to rumours that British American Tobacco (BAT) was developing a Covid-19 vaccine, said that “partnership with the tobacco industry undermines governments’ credibility in protecting the population" as there is "a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry’s interests and public health policy interests.”
“The tobacco industry “interests” have been accused of both knowingly driving addiction in developing countries and misrepresenting the function of filters. This week we learn that BAT faces charges of sanctions busting. Why do we tolerate this awful industry that causes people to take up scarce hospital beds?
“Given Covid-19 targets the lungs, it’s not a big leap to suggest that smokers are likely to be disproportionately affected once they catch this damnable virus.”
Source: Herald Scotland, 17 April 2020
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** Link of the week
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** Writing in the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) ‘Commentary’ magazine, Dr Sanjay Agrawal argues that one of the simplest and most effective things health professionals can do to reduce patients’ risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19, is help them to stop smoking. Dr Sanjay Agrawal is a consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and chair of the RCP’s Tobacco Advisory Group.
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