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** 11 September 2024
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** UK
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** Labour urged to impose stricter controls on gambling ads (#1)
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** Scottish alcohol deaths at 15-year high (#2)
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** International
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** Irish cabinet to approve ban on disposable vapes (#3)
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** Why are 1 in 10 French women still smoking during pregnancy despite the health risks? (#4)
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** Child vaping sucks away chance of ciggie-free Australia (#5)
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** UK
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** Labour urged to impose stricter controls on gambling ads

Labour ministers are under pressure to overturn the previous government’s “bizarre” decision not to impose stricter regulation on gambling advertising, particularly around sport, from politicians, campaigners and figures from the world of football.

At a summit held close to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, a succession of experts called on the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, to impose much stricter controls on how gambling is marketed, in order to protect children and vulnerable people.

Tony Blair’s government revised Britain’s gambling laws in 2005, removing restrictions on advertising just before the invention of the smartphone effectively put a casino in every pocket. Bookies and online casinos spent more than £1.5bn on advertising in 2017, a figure that is believed to have risen substantially since then.

Speaking at the event, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who co-chairs a cross-party parliamentary group examining gambling harms, cited a survey by Survation showing that most of the public support banning gambling ads all together.

While he stopped short of advocating such a measure, he said: “Politicians need to find their way towards the public on this,” said Duncan Smith.

“It’s clear and obvious what can be done and what should be done.”

Duncan Smith called on the new government to outlaw incentives and inducements to gamble, such as “free” bets, and urged ministers to restrict gambling advertising in sport, banning sponsorship on football kits and betting ads in and around stadiums.

Several campaign groups also called for a pre-9pm ban on betting and casino advertising, a policy that has the backing of GambleAware, the UK’s leading gambling charity.

Figures released last month by the Gambling Commission, obtained using a new methodology, indicate that the number of people suffering harm from problem gambling may be eight times higher than previously thought, affecting up to 2.5% of adults in Great Britain.

Source: The Guardian, 11 September 2024

See also: Gambling Commission - First Gambling Survey for Great Britain Annual Report published ([link removed])
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** Scottish alcohol deaths at 15-year high

The number of people in Scotland whose death was caused by alcohol remains at a high level, with the largest number of deaths in 15 years.

The latest figures from National Records of Scotland, (NRS) show 1,277 people died from conditions caused by alcohol in 2023. This was one death more than the previous year, which was the highest number since 2008.

Areas such as Inverclyde, Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire, and Dundee City saw deaths above the Scottish average.

Glasgow City continues to have the highest mortality rate by some margin recording 184, although this was down from 202 on the previous year. North Lanarkshire saw 115 deaths, up from 107.

Phillipa Haxton, head of vital events statistics, said the rates of deaths had "generally risen" since 2012. She said: "If we look at the average age at death, that has risen over time.

"The mortality rates for those aged 65 to 74, and 75 and over, were at their highest since we began recording these figures in 1994.

"At the same time, for age 25-44 the mortality rate has been fairly stable over the last decade.”

Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said: “My sympathy goes out to all those who have lost a loved one through alcohol. The Scottish government is determined to do all it can to reduce alcohol-related harm and we continue to treat it as an equal priority with drugs as a public health emergency."

She said that as well as increasing the minimum unit price for alcohol, the Scottish government had invested in alcohol treatment services and was exploring ways to reducing children and young people’s exposure to alcohol marketing.

Dr Peter Rice, chairman of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems said the deaths could have been prevented.

“Scotland's approach to reducing alcohol harm has had success in reducing alcohol deaths in the past, including with the introduction of Minimum Unit Price in 2018," he said. "However, to be successful policy needs to be sustained and progressive."

Source: BBC News, 10 September 2024

See also: National Record of Scotland – Alcohol-specific deaths ([link removed])
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** International
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** Irish cabinet to approve ban on disposable vapes

The Irish government is set to ban disposable vapes. Cabinet approval was given Tuesday morning to draft laws tabled by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

Under the proposed laws there will be a complete ban on the sale, manufacture or import of single-use or disposable vapes in Ireland.

The legislation will also introduce a ban on a multitude of flavours that the government believe often appeal to children – it is estimated that as many as 15,000 flavour combinations exist.

The laws will also introduce a ban on point-of-sale display or advertising in shops, other than specialist shops that only sell the products.

Mr Donnelly also wants to place restrictions on colours and imagery on packages and the devices to ensure they are not aimed at younger people.

Government research notes that single-use vapes are relatively inexpensive and are often "an impulse purchase in shops and disproportionately used by younger people who often experiment with them".

Source: BBC News, 10 September 2024
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** Why are 1 in 10 French women still smoking during pregnancy despite the health risks?

Smoking during pregnancy is linked to adverse health outcomes for mothers and their newborns, but quitting smoking cold turkey can be very difficult.

More than one in 10 French women smoke throughout their pregnancy despite the well-known health risks of doing so, according to new figures from Public Health France.

The survey of more than 1,300 mothers of children under five years old in 2021 found that 13 per cent of them smoked during the entirety of their pregnancy. This was similar to the results from the previous survey in 2017.

The recently released results show that "tobacco use is still very common" in both the adult population and during pregnancy, Public Health France said.

A recent study also found that even light smoking (one or two cigarettes) before or during pregnancy could increase the risk of serious neonatal health complications.

The new Public Health France report showed that 24 per cent of mothers of children under five said they smoked cigarettes at the time that they learned of being pregnant.

Of them, 45 per cent said they stopped smoking after learning of their pregnancy or during it, while 51 per cent said they reduced how much they smoked. Of those surveyed, 4 per cent neither stopped nor reduced their smoking.

The findings of the report echoed a separate Public Health France survey of 15,000 women that found that 12 per cent of them reported smoking in their third trimester of pregnancy in 2021.

Caroline Combot, president of the French National Union Organisation of Midwives, told Euronews Health that it can be difficult to convince women who smoke to completely stop during pregnancy.

Those who do try to quit "will relapse very quickly," Combot said, adding that there is a "lack of communication about the difficulty of quitting smoking during pregnancy".

She added that there can also be a long wait to have a consultation with a smoking cessation specialist and without accompanying women, many will have a hard time stopping completely.

It’s also up to the pregnant woman’s partner to stop smoking as having someone in the same household who smokes can make quitting much more difficult.

"Both parents must take steps to wean [themselves off of tobacco]," Combot said.

Source: Euronews, 10 September 2024

See also: Public Health France - Tobacco and alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Results of the 2021 Public Health Barometer France. ([link removed])

Demiguel V, Blondel B, et al. Trends in Tobacco Smoking in Pregnant Women: Data From French National Perinatal Surveys ([link removed]) . Int J Public Health. 2021

Yang L, Yang L, Wang H, et al. Maternal cigarette smoking before or during pregnancy increases the risk of severe neonatal morbidity after delivery: a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study ([link removed]) . J Epidemiol Community Health. 2024
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** Child vaping sucks away chance of ciggie-free Australia

Children who use vapes face a much greater risk of progressing to cigarettes, research shows. Generation Vape, a national research project into the growing rates of e-cigarette use among young people, surveyed more than 5100 teenagers.

It found 12-year-olds who had vaped were 29 times more likely to go on to try smoking than children the same age who had not.

Health experts say it's an important reminder of the need for governments to work together to enact and enforce vaping reforms.

The study, the first of its kind in Australia, used data collected in 2023. Lead author Sam Egger said they found children aged 12-17 who had vaped were five times more likely to start smoking, with the rates escalating the younger the child started vaping.

"The younger a person started using vapes, the higher their increased risk that they would subsequently try smoking," he said.

Health experts welcomed the federal government's vaping reforms, which passed in June, but Public Health Association of Australia chief executive Terry Slevin said positive change won't happen overnight.

"We need to make sure that state and territory governments are harmonising their local legislation and enforcement with the federal reforms," he said.

"All levels of government will need to work together to protect young people."

Source: Daily Mail, 10 September 2024

Editorial note: The evidence around whether vaping is a gateway to smoking is mixed and the link is still unclear. If vaping were a gateway into smoking, as youth vaping increased smoking rates would be expected to show a reduced rate of decline or start to increase. This is not the case in the UK where between 2010 and 2021 when e-cigarette use grew rapidly from a low base in England, smoking rates among children continued to fall at least as rapidly as previously. However this does not mean that vaping is not a gateway into smoking for some individuals, although for others vaping could be a gateway out of smoking. Causation is hard to prove as some children who try vaping first may go on to smoke cigarettes, but this association works both ways, and there are common risk factors for both behaviours (e.g., parental smoking, risk-taking and impulsivity); making it hard to prove that vaping caused subsequent smoking. For further info see: Addressing common myths about vaping: Putting the
evidence in context ([link removed])

See also: Sam Egger, Michael David, et al. The association between vaping and subsequent initiation of cigarette smoking in young Australians from age 12 to 17 years: a retrospective cohort analysis using cross-sectional recall data from 5114 adolescents ([link removed]) . Science Direct. 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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