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Children’s daily sugar consumption halved just a year after tax, study finds
A study has found that the amount of sugar consumed by children from soft drinks in the UK halved within a year of the sugar tax being introduced. The tax, which came into force in April 2018, has been so successful in improving people’s diets that experts have said an expansion to cover other high-sugar food and drink products is now a “no-brainer”.
The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at responses from 7,999 adults and 7,656 children between 2008 and 2019 to the annual nationally representative UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. It showed that the daily sugar intake for children fell by about 4.8g, and for adults 10.9g, in the year after the levy’s introduction.
The total dietary free sugars, including food and drink, in children was about 70g a day at the beginning of the study, but this fell to about 45g by the end. For adults, the study found that the total dietary free sugar consumption stood at about 60g a day, and fell to about 45g a day by the end of the study.
The amount of sugar consumed by adults and children still remains above the recommended guidelines and is contributing to high levels of tooth decay, obesity, diabetes and other illnesses.
Source: The Guardian, 9 July 2024
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Experts reveal reasons behind surge in cancers caused by cigarettes, despite smoking rates dropping
New research shows the number of people diagnosed with cancer caused by smoking has hit an all-time high, with 160 new cases per day. However, despite the 17 per cent surge in cases since 2003, the number of smokers has plummeted over the last 20 years. Lung cancer researcher Dr Rob Hynds, of University College London, believes several factors are behind the surprising data — not least that even those who quit two decades ago are still at raised risk of developing cancer.
He said: “The proportion of people dying of lung cancer is declining, as you would expect, based on the reduction in smoking. But our understanding of cancer is dramatically better now than it was, and that has enabled us to attribute more cancers and types of cancer to smoking. For example, last year, a number of annual breast cancer cases were revealed to be caused by smoking and included in the statistics for the first time.”
Hynds also said that population growth has limited the apparent reduction in smoking rates. While the proportion of people smoking has fallen from 45 per cent in 1975 to 13 per cent today, the UK population has grown by more than 10 million in that time.
Medical advancements, including early detection and life-extending treatment, have contributed to the rise in cases. Dr Hynds also said former smokers continue have an increased risk of being diagnosed with cancer for years after they quit.
“It is younger people who have never started smoking who have driven the decrease in smoking at the population level. As such, older people who started smoking at a young age and have smoked for a long time are still being diagnosed with cancers.”
Dr Katrina Brown, a Cancer Research UK statistician, said ex-smokers being diagnosed with cancer in later life are partly behind the increase in cases. She added population growth means that while the proportion of people who smoke has decreased, the actual number is still quite high.
Professor Sir Richard Peto, of Oxford University, said that while smoking-related cancer cases appear to be rising, the number of deaths has been falling over the last two decades.
Source: Mail Online, 9 July 2024
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Conservative MP Bob Blackman elected chair of 1922 committee
MP Bob Blackman has been elected chair of the backbench 1922 committee, helping start the clock for a Conservative leadership contest as the party holds a postmortem on last week’s election defeat.
Blackman, MP for Harrow East, was chosen by 61 MPs — roughly half of the Tory parliamentary party — in a contest fought against fellow veteran backbencher Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.
The newly elected chairman, who successfully forced the previous government to back down on plans for a crackdown on rough sleepers proposed by former home secretary and leadership hopeful Suella Braverman, said the appointment meant the party could start to rebuild itself.
“I am delighted that we can start rebuilding our parliamentary party,” Blackman said, addressing the much-depleted group of fellow Conservative MPs.
Blackman’s election is likely to kick off a protracted contest to replace ousted prime minister and current Tory leader Rishi Sunak. The race is expected to conclude in the autumn following a “listening exercise” to determine where the party fell short.
Source: The FT, 9 July 2024
Editorial note: Bob Blackman MP is the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health.
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Thailand to reverse cannabis decriminalisation two years on
Thailand is set to once again make the recreational use of cannabis illegal, just two years after decriminalising the drug and giving away marijuana plants to encourage its cultivation. The policy U-turn has provoked protests from activists, farmers and business owners — some of whom claimed to have invested heavily in cannabis-related operations since decriminalisation in June 2022.
A health ministry committee on illegal drugs voted last week to reclassify cannabis and hemp as narcotics, with new rules expected to be enforced from January next year. Cannabis leaves or buds containing more than 0.2 per cent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient, will be classified as narcotics.
Dr Surachoke Tangwiwat, deputy permanent secretary at the ministry, said that a majority of the committee agreed that cannabis could be used for medical treatments but not recreationally.
The domestic cannabis market had been projected to grow to a value of 336 billion baht (£7.2 billion) by 2030.
Source: The Times, 9 July 2024
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