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Number of UK adults who vape reaches record level, report finds
The proportion of adults who vape in the UK is at its highest level, with the number who both smoke and vape doubling over the past three years, according to analysis.
The number of smokers who use both cigarettes and vapes has increased from 17% in 2021 to 32% in 2024 – the equivalent of 2.2 million people.
The analysis, which was conducted by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and was based on data collected by YouGov, found 5.6 million adults in Britain vape, about 11% of the adult population.
According to the research, more than half (53%) of those who vape are former smokers, which is the equivalent of 3 million people.
Among all former smokers – including those who still vape or no longer vape – the median length of time spent using e-cigarettes is two years.
However, in the last three years, ASH found more than half of vapers who were former smokers had been vaping for more than three years. This compared with 18% in 2017 when the question was first asked as part of the analysis.
Labour said it would revive the former Tory government’s tobacco and vapes bill, which would ban anyone born after January 2009 from buying cigarettes, with the aim to eventually phase out cigarette smoking. It could also lead to restrictions on the flavours, packaging and display of vapes.
Hazel Cheeseman, the deputy chief executive of Ash, said: “Smoking is still the country’s biggest preventable killer and vaping is one of many tools needed to help smokers quit if we are to create a smoke-free country for current as well as future generations.
“Millions of people have used vapes to successfully stop smoking in recent years, increasing healthy life expectancy and improving the nation’s productivity. Tougher vape regulations are urgently needed, but it is important they are calibrated to address youth vaping while not deterring use of vapes as quitting aids.”
Henry Gregg, the director of external affairs at Asthma + Lung UK, said: “Quitting smoking can be incredibly difficult, so it’s great to see that many smokers find vapes a really effective stop smoking aid.
“But to help as many smokers as possible to quit, it’s vital the government increases investment in local stop smoking services. These have suffered drastic cuts in recent years but do a fantastic job of supporting people to stop smoking for good and deal with smoking’s deadly legacy.”
Leonie Brose, a professor of addictions public health at King’s College London, said: “More than half of people who smoke long term will die prematurely due to smoking.
“Alarmingly, half of those who smoke think vaping is just as harmful or more harmful and almost as many are unaware that nicotine-containing medication is less harmful than smoking. These misperceptions are costing lives and we need continued focus on reducing the harms from smoking.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “While vaping can be an effective tool to stop smoking, the health advice is clear: children and adults that do not smoke should never vape.
“The upcoming tobacco and vapes bill will protect future generations from the harms of tobacco and nicotine, saving thousands of lives and easing pressures on the NHS. By building a healthier society, we will help to build a healthy economy.”
Source: The Guardian, 12 August 2024
See also: ASH - Nearly 3 million people in Britain have quit smoking with a vape in the last 5 years
The Times - Vaping rises to record levels in Britain
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From Charli XCX to a Team GB golfer, is smoking making a comeback?
The harm that smoking does to our health is well researched and widely understood. It is known to increase the risk of at least 16 types of cancer and 94% of UK adults recognise smoking as a risk factor for cancer.
Charli XCX, whose latest album spawned the brat summer trend, has described the concept as “pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra”. At her 32nd birthday party in LA this week, her fellow pop star Rosalía gifted her a bouquet chaotically arranged with cigarettes.
The Instagram account Cigfluencers, “aka HOT PEOPLE keeping the art of SMOKING & BEING COOL alive…”, shares pictures of celebrities, including The Bear stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, mid-cigarette.
Even sportspeople – the most virtuously healthy of celebrities – are involved. At the Olympics, the 28-year-old Team GB golfer Charley Hull has been speaking about her habit. “I do smoke on the course,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s a habit, but I won’t do this week.” Paris 2024 organisers have stipulated that all Olympic venues are non-smoking.
Years of public health campaigns about the fatal impacts of smoking caused it to fall out of favour. Overall rates have been dropping in the UK, according to the World Population Review, and there is a decline globally.
According to Dr Sarah Jackson, a senior research fellow in University College London’s tobacco and alcohol research group, recent data suggests declines in smoking since 2021 have been greater among younger adults than older age groups.
But Hazel Cheeseman, the deputy chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), cautioned against complacency. “In the 1990s, smoking rates stopped falling and started to increase among teenagers. This was an era when tobacco marketing was rife, and smoking had cultural cache. If the 1990s are back in fashion let’s hope we don’t see this repeated.”
Complacency could be part of what is happening today. Surveys by ASH found that the younger people were the less likely they were to be aware of the full health risks of smoking. “We know that mass media campaigns which communicate hard-hitting messages about the health risks of smoking impact all generations,” said Cheeseman. “However, such campaigns have been very limited since 2010.”
The 2023 UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index found that “the UK has made no progress in protecting public health policies from the commercial interests of the tobacco industry”.
Big tobacco is clever. Phil Chamberlain, the deputy director of the tobacco control research group at the University of Bath, said: “Despite advertising of tobacco products being banned in the UK for over 20 years, the tobacco industry has lots of ways of protecting its image and its profits.
"Just because we don’t see adverts on the TV or cigarettes sold in pubs any more, doesn’t mean the industry isn’t still working very hard to keep itself popular and profitable behind the scenes.”
A recent study linked social media use with an increased risk of cigarette smoking and vaping among 10- to 25-year-olds. Those who spent more than seven hours on social media a day were found to be more than 3.5 times as likely to be smokers.
Cheeseman said: “We know smoking-related imagery can encourage people to try smoking. It is therefore plausible that these depictions of smoking might influence some young people to try a cigarette.
“Younger smokers routinely underestimate the risks of smoking and overestimate their ability to stop … Smoking might start off as part of a brat summer but it’s unlikely to be where it ends.”
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Bolton Council funds say smoking costs nearly £100M a year
This comes with Bolton Council set to consider a new contract to deliver local stop smoking services across the borough.
A report put before the authority said that this costs the public purse staggering amounts of money in health and social care costs.
Bolton Council cabinet member for adults, health and wellbeing Cllr Sean Fielding said: “You’d be hard pressed to find anybody who disagrees that smoking is bad.
“It’s bad for your health, the health of others around you, your finances, and at an additional cost of £95M, the finances of our public services.
“Kicking the habit is easier said than done though, but fortunately the council commissions are range of support services to help people to stop.
“I’d encourage all smokers to think about quitting and access support if they need it, the benefits of stopping start within just a few days.”
The report put before Cllr Fielding and the council officers said that Bolton had a higher-than-average rate of smoking compared to the rest of the North West and the rest of the country.
It found that in 2022 there were around 42,444 adult smokers coming to around 14.2 per cent of the population.
This compared to a North West average of 13.4 per cent and an average across England of 12.7 per cent.
The report came to the £95M figure by estimating the cost causes because of the extra strain on health and social care services as well as days lost to productivity.
But Bolton Public Health has also received a grant of £438,537 as part of the government’s plan to fund extra local stop smoking services for the next five years.
The council plans to split the grant between £339,537 worth of funding for the ABL Locally Commissioned Stop Smoking Service and funding for other services.
These include £50,000 for The Allen Carr Easyway Method which provides online seminars, £6,000 for BHA for Equality and £43,000 Internal Communication and Contingency Fund.
Source: Bolton News, 11 August 2024
ASH - ASH Ready Reckoner
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Majority in UK want new tax on makers of ultra-processed and junk food
A majority of people in Britain want new taxes imposed on companies that make either junk food or ultra-processed foodstuffs to help tackle the obesity crisis, polling suggests.
The findings prompted calls for ministers to help people eat healthier diets by putting a sugar tax-style levy on sweets, cereals, pizzas and other products containing too much salt or sugar.
In a survey by Ipsos for the Health Foundation thinktank, 58% of those questioned said they backed the introduction of a tax on organisations that produce foods high in sugar or salt, with some of the revenue to be used to buy fresh fruit and vegetables for poor families.
Ipsos found that a smaller proportion of people, but still a majority (53%) favoured imposing a tax on companies that produce ultra-processed food, such as ham, biscuits and mass-produced bread, with some of the proceeds raised to be deployed to help low-income households eat better.
On taxing junk food producers, only 19% of the representative sample of 2,136 UK adults were opposed to the idea and 20% said they did not know. A larger number (24%) were opposed to ultra-processed food manufacturers facing taxes while 21% did not know.
Responding to the 58% backing for taxes on makers of sugary and salty products, Adam Briggs, a senior policy fellow and public health expert at the Health Foundation, said: “The new government should be emboldened by this type of polling and understand that this [idea] is something that does enjoy broad support and is likely to lead to important health benefits. The public are basically saying: it’s time for tough action.”
Obesity is costing the UK an estimated £98bn a year, including a £6.5bn bill for the NHS for treating illnesses linked to being overweight, such as heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and joint problems.
A sugar tax-style levy should initially be imposed on confectionery, cakes and biscuits, sugary breakfast cereals, sweetened yogurts and crisps but then extended to ready meals and pizzas, Briggs said – the latter two because of their high salt content.
Prof Carlos Monteiro, the scientist who first coined the term ultra-processed foods, recently suggested that they should carry tobacco-style warnings and also be taxed because of the danger they pose.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Prevention is better than cure, which is why this government will make it our mission to shift the focus of healthcare from simply treating ill-health to preventing it in the first place.”
Source: The Guardian, 11 August 2024
See also: The Health Foundation - What action does the public think the government should take on tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food?
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Australia: Watered-down ban on gambling ads a 'partial solution'
Only a total ban on gambling advertisements will create deep and meaningful change, advocates and experts say.
Late Labor MP Peta Murphy handed down a landmark review in 2023 calling on the government to phase out all gambling ads across three years to allow sporting codes to find replacement revenue.
Reports suggest the federal government won't adopt the centrepiece measure but will instead impose a limit when gambling ads can be shown.
Australians lose more money gambling per capita than anyone else in the world, with $25 billion lost on legal forms of gambling every year, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate Tim Costello likened the watered-down proposal to the partial ban placed on tobacco advertisement during the 1970s.
"Partial bans, as we saw when we tried with tobacco, simply don't work," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
Independent politicians say a fear of media companies and the major sporting codes have prevented the government from committing to meaningful gambling reform.
Senator Jacqui Lambie has urged the government to "show some goddamn courage".
"You have a perfect opportunity to make a difference in the future of our children, to not give him another addiction because you did nothing about it today," she said.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud has called on the government to treat passive advertisements - like sponsorships - differently to push advertisements, where odds are placed in front of sports viewers to encourage them to bet.
"People have the right to be able to gamble, but we've got to be careful about that advertising," he said.
Source: Daily Mail, 12 August 2024
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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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