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** 14 August 2024
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** UK
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** Nurse hails hospital quit scheme after vape switch (#1)
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** Inside Health: What should we do about vaping? (#2)
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** Smokers in Hull are replacing cigarettes with vapes in a bid to quit (#4)
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** International
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** Australia: The gambling industry is pulling out all the stops to prevent an ad ban, but the evidence is against it (#3)
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** UK
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** Nurse hails hospital quit scheme after vape switch

A hospital worker has said he feels "tons better and healthier" after ditching cigarettes in favour of vaping, as figures showed one in 10 adults in the UK were now using e-cigarettes.

Paul Brittain, 53, a senior research nurse at York Hospital, said he had noticed health improvements by taking part in a hospital project called Swap and Stop for two years.

He spoke as a survey from Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) found 11% of respondents currently vaped, equivalent to 5.6 million adults in the UK.

The government said vaping could be an "effective tool" to stop smoking, but warned non-smokers "should never vape".

Mr Brittain said: "I started smoking at about 17 but became a grandad at 50, so I wanted to give quitting another try and so far, it has worked this time. For the first couple of weeks, I was very pleasantly surprised as it was the nicotine that you’re addicted to, not the craving of the cigarette, and I’ve been slowly reducing my nicotine down.”

“I feel tons better and healthier within myself, as for the last 10-15 years, I had concurrent chest infections of bronchitis, and colds, but for the last two years, I’ve had no issues with this”

While vaping is less dangerous than smoking cigarettes, the vapour that is inhaled contains chemicals, including the addictive substance nicotine.

But Mr Brittain said he was starting to think of himself as more of a "non-smoker" and he was working on further reducing his nicotine intake.

He said: "In terms of trying to stop before, it has always been the negative language around wanting to quit.

"You were sort of doomed to fail before you started, because it was hard, you were going to get cravings, it would be horrible and you were just not going to succeed."

"This time I felt the language was all changed, so I felt this is more about preparing you to change to healthier habits and options, so I was doing everything I would do with a cigarette, but without the added toxicity that comes with smoking."

Source: BBC News, 13 August 2024

See also: ASH PR: Nearly 3 million people in Britain have quit smoking with a vape in the last 5 years ([link removed] )
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** Inside Health: What should we do about vaping?

BBC Radio 4 program ‘Inside Health’ discusses vaping. Interviewing Dr Sarah Jackson, Principal Research Fellow at UCL Alcohol and Tobacco Research Group, and Hazel Cheeseman, Deputy Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health the programme covers how vapes rose in popularity and what the evidence tells us about their use as a smoking cessation tool.

The program also interviews Richard who was 10 when he started smoking, and by the age of 35, he had given up on giving up smoking. But thanks to vaping he quit, almost by accident, in just a few months.

Source: BBC Sounds, 13 August 2024

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** Smokers in Hull are replacing cigarettes with vapes in a bid to quit

Figures from SmokeFree Hull show 24 per cent of people who successfully stopped smoking with them between April 2023 and March 2024 used a vape to help quit.

The data has illustrated the difference seeking help can make when stopping smoking. People who use SmokeFree Hull, the city’s smoking support service, can get free vapes, as well as one-to-one help and advice.

Hull has one of the highest smoking rates in the country. One in five people (20.49 per cent) in the city smoke, compared with the national average of 12.9 per cent.

Linda Chambers, portfolio holder for Public Health and Adult Social Care, said, “It’s extremely encouraging to see so many people are managing to stop smoking successfully using vapes. While the advice is that if you haven’t smoked, then you shouldn’t vape, they can be a fantastic tool for those who are looking to quit.

“While these figures are great news, our smoking rate in Hull remains stubbornly high. It’s important not to become complacent about just how dangerous smoking is. We may not see the high-profile government warnings on tv ads as we did in the past, but the risks haven’t changed. Smoking significantly increases your risk of a number of health conditions, including lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.”

In addition to personal health risks, figures released earlier this year from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) have revealed smoking costs Hull £352m a year. This is made up of healthcare costs, as well as social care, the impact of poor health on ability to work, and calculations based on money spent on smoking, rather than within the local economy.

Linda added, “Quitting isn’t easy, but these figures really show that you don’t have to do it alone. The benefits of stopping are huge, for your health and the health of anyone in your home. The average smoker getting through 15 cigarettes a day also saves more than £70 a week when they quit”.

A client who used the SmokeFree Hull service to quit, said, “I sometimes feel the urge to smoke, but I promised my children and myself I wouldn’t, and I haven’t. I’ve got a vape as a substitute, but I don’t use it very often, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved through the service’s help and support”.

Source: Dental Nursing, 13th August 2024

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** International
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** Australia: The gambling industry is pulling out all the stops to prevent an ad ban, but the evidence is against it

Samantha Thomas, Professor of Public Health at Deakin University discusses upcoming government plans to finalise its proposed laws to limit gambling advertising.

The current proposal is a partial ban, with limits to ads during general TV programming. However, Thomas notes a previous recommendation of a parliamentary committee unanimously recommended banning gambling ads entirely.

Thomas writes that the gambling industry is pushing back on this. Kai Cantwell, Chief Executive of Australia’s gambling body Responsible Wagering Australia, claimed ad bans would push gamblers to illegal offshore services, and downplayed the impact of advertising on children.

Thomas explains why marketing is so key to the gambling industry, by nature they need people to lose to make money, necessitating a continually renewing customer base. Marketing also helps to push new brands and products, also key to retaining customers.

Marketing also normalises gambling. Thomas references evidence that exposure to gambling marketing creates the perception that gambling has a limited risk attached to it amongst young people.

The impact on children’s perception of gambling is what pushed the recent parliamentary inquiry to recommend a blanket ban on gambling advertising. In response, Thomas says the gambling industry have used a “range of strategies to delay, distract and deflect calls for evidence based regulation”.

This includes the argument that regulation of legal gambling will lead to take up of illegal products. However, Thomas references evidence from Spain where lobbyist made the same arguments, yet once regulations were passed take up of illegal gambling did not materialise.

Source: The Conversation, 13 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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