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** 13 September 2024
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** UK
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** Tory MP calls for crackdown on shisha lounges (#1)
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** Ban on junk food TV promotion before 9pm to come in next year (#2)
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** Keir Starmer ready to face down ‘nanny state’ jibes in radical public health drive (#3)
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** International
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** USA: Schools are putting vape detectors in bathrooms — paid for by Juul (#4)
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** Link of the Week
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** Report: Planning for Prevention (#5)
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** Autobiography: Bobbie Jacobson’s Against the Flow (#6)
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** Full Fact: How does revenue from tobacco duties compare to the cost of smoking to the NHS? (#7)
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** UK
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** Tory MP calls for crackdown on shisha lounges

Bob Blackman MP, Chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health in the last parliament, said failing to include shisha lounges and chewing tobacco, such as paan, in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill would leave “escape clauses”.

In July’s King’s Speech, the Labour Government revived plans to introduce the Bill, originally put forward by the Conservatives.

The Bill proposes progressively increasing the age at which people can buy tobacco, preventing anyone born after January 1 2009 being legally able to do so.

It also aims to curb the attraction of vaping for children and young people, such as restricting the flavours, packaging and display of e-cigarettes. At business questions on Thursday, Mr Blackman (Harrow East) said:

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. I urge the Leader of the House [Lucy Powell] to publish the membership numbers for Select Committees, and urge the usual channels to get on with populating those Committees, in particular of course the Backbench Business Committee, so that we can start to schedule the debates that Back Benchers, rather than the Government, want to table.

The Leader of the House has not announced when the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will come back. In Committee, I and many Labour Members proposed amendments to the then Government’s Bill that we will want to progress. I realise that the matter will be considered by the Health Secretary. Will the Leader of the House also take away and consider the view that shisha lounges and the sale of paan need to be included in the measures? Otherwise, we will leave escape clauses for those who want to resist taking action on mouth, throat and lung cancer.”

Commons Leader Lucy Powell replied: “We announced in the King’s Speech that we would take forward the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will come to the House in due course. One issue that the Secretary of State is considering is how to strengthen the Bill before we introduce it by looking at amendments from the previous Session.”

Source: The Independent, 12 September 2024

See also: Hansard - Business of the House, Volume 753: debated on Thursday 12 September 2024 ([link removed])
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** Ban on junk food TV promotion before 9pm to come in next year

Labour said the watershed on junk food promotion would be enforced from 1 October 2025 alongside a total ban on paid-for online promotion, both aimed at tackling childhood obesity.

The Conservatives had previously committed to the ban in 2021 when Boris Johnson was prime minister, but it was pushed back to give the industry more time to prepare.

Health Minister Andrew Gwynne said confirming the scope of restrictions and the date they would be implemented provided clarity for businesses.

Gwynne said the government wanted "to tackle the problem head on" and "without further delay".

"These restrictions will help protect children from being exposed to advertising of less healthy food and drinks, which evidence shows influences their dietary preferences from a young age," he said in his written statement to the Commons on Thursday.

The pre-watershed ban was a pledge in Labour's manifesto during this year's general election campaign.

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), which works to reduce childhood obesity, called the ban a "welcome step".

The government has now published its response to a 2022 consultation on draft measures for the ban, confirming definitions for the products, businesses and services covered by the restrictions.

Under the proposals, there is a two-stage approach for defining a product that is considered "less healthy" for the purposes of the restrictions.

This was originally referred to as products "high in fat, salt or sugar".

In response to the 2022 consultation, the government said it recognised the need for greater clarity on the scope of the restrictions.

It said further guidance will be provided to explain product categories, with clearer examples of which food and drink items fall within each category.

Gwynne said the government would also hold a four-week targeted consultation to then be able to clarify how restrictions would apply to Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), which delivers TV live over the internet.

Source: BBC News, 12 September 2024
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**
See also: Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Culture, Media and Sport - Introducing further advertising restrictions on TV and online for less healthy food and drink: internet protocol television (IPTV) ([link removed])
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**
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** Keir Starmer ready to face down ‘nanny state’ jibes in radical public health drive

The government made clear it would face down “predictable cries of ‘nanny state’” because Keir Starmer was convinced this was the way to fix the service.

Unhealthy food promotions will be banned from television before the 9 pm watershed, the government has announced. Online promotions for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar will be banned altogether. Both measures, which are intended to help tackle childhood obesity, will come into force in a year’s time.

Plans to ban children from buying high-caffeine energy drinks, which form part of the same public health drive and appeared in Labour’s election manifesto, are expected to be announced next month.

In the coming months, the government plans to introduce a strengthened tobacco and vapes bill, which is likely to extend the indoor smoking ban to pub beer gardens.

Ministers are also looking at expanding water fluoridation to improve dental health, and giving councils enhanced powers to block the development of unhealthy food outlets near schools to tackle obesity. Further measures are being looked at, with government officials canvassing the public health sector for policy ideas.

Starmer delivered a speech at the King’s Fund after a report by Lord Darzi, a former health minister, concluded that the health service was “in critical condition” after years of neglect by successive governments.

The prime minister said he was prepared to take “much bolder” action on preventing illness. “There’s diet, there’s healthy lifestyle, we are going to have to get into that space. I know some prevention measures will be controversial but I’m prepared to be bold, even in the face of loud opposition,” he said. “Some of our changes won’t be universally popular, we know that, but I will do the right thing for our NHS, our economy and our children.”

Starmer and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, want the NHS to take a more proactive role on prevention, including through the health check programme in workplaces. The programme provides people with checkups at work with a view to preventing heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.

A public health official said the Darzi report “did not pull any punches” on the wider public health causes behind the NHS’s woes, and that this was reflective of a wider shift in approach from that of the last government.

They said officials had been consulting the sector for policy ideas, including on how to combat obesity. As well as anti-smoking measures and a likely push on water fluoridation, the official said they believed ministers were examining ways to limit the health toll from alcohol. “I don’t know if it will happen, but along with smoking, alcohol is the obvious thing to look at,” they said.

Research by The Food Foundation suggests that an unhealthy diet is causing a record amount of disability among people across the UK who are overweight or obese.

Source: The Guardian, 13 September 2024

See also: Lord Darzi of Denham – Independent Investigation of the National Health Service in England ([link removed]) | The Food Foundation - Obesity and dietary risks are leading causes of deaths and disability in UK ([link removed]) | Obesity Health Alliance - Empowering Communities to Create Healthier Local Food Environments ([link removed]) | Obesity Health Alliance – Open Letter to Local Authorities ([link removed])
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** International
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** USA: Schools are putting vape detectors in bathrooms — paid for by Juul

E-cigarette use among young people in the U.S. dropped significantly over the past year, according to a new government study. The hopeful signs come as more schools are installing high-tech vape detectors in bathrooms and locker rooms to curb student use of e-cigarettes.

Some districts are using money from a $1.7 billion legal settlement against e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs to pay for the devices.

Nearly 1.63 million, or 6%, of high school and middle school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2024, compared with 2.13 million, or 7.7%, the previous year, according to the 2024 Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey.

In 2022, Juul settled some 5,000 lawsuits from states, counties and school districts that alleged that the e-cigarette maker used deceptive marketing aimed at teens and neglected to prevent underage sales of its products. Since then, additional suits have been settled. Money from those settlements has been used by schools to install vape detectors.

While some school districts are experimenting with pilot programs, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in New York recently introduced legislation that would require the city’s Department of Education to put detectors in every public school.

Other districts have favoured education over punitive measures. The American Lung Association’s Mercure oversees the organisation’s “Vape-Free Schools Initiative,” a program that focuses on education and tries to help students quit.

Organisations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which opposes invasive student searches and seizure of student property, such as mobile phones, argues that the harm caused by detectors outweighs the benefits.

The ACLU’s New York-based senior policy counsel, Chad Marlow, says surveillance technologies such as vape detectors can undermine “student relationships with the teachers and administrators who we want them to trust.” Instead, schools might be better served by “a hall monitor who has positive interactions with students and can still look out for vaping,” he says.

Source: NPR News, 12 September 2024

See also: US Food & Drug Administration - Results from the Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey ([link removed]) | Center Disease Control and Prevention - Youth E-Cigarette Use Drops to Lowest Level in a Decade ([link removed])%20youth%20in%202024.)
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** Links of the Week
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** Report: Planning for Prevention

The Mental Health Foundation has published a new report ‘Planning for Prevention: Unlocking the potential of Integrated Care Systems to create a mentally healthy society’. The report examines the extent of the commitment to public mental health activity in the 42 Integrated Care System areas across England, analysing their statements of intent in their 2023 Integrated Care Strategies and their Joint Forward Plans (JFPs) for the period 2023–28.
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** Autobiography: Bobbie Jacobson’s Against the Flow

Bobbie Jacobson, former ASH Deputy Director, has published an autobiography ‘Against the Flow’ setting out what she learned from four decades of campaigning to prevent ill-health, initially at ASH and later as a senior public health doctor. The Autobiography begins in the early days of ASH in the 1970s with Mike Daube, Charles Fletcher and Keith Ball, moving on to Jacobson’s international work on women and tobacco, and wider public health.
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** Full Fact: How does revenue from tobacco duties compare to the cost of smoking to the NHS?

Speaking to journalists on the possibility of an outdoor smoking ban, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and MP for Clacton, said that the tax revenues generated by tobacco were “four to five times the cost of the NHS annually”.

While he referred to the cost “of” the NHS, it seems likely he intended to say cost “to” the NHS.

While it isn’t correct to say the revenues generated by tobacco duties are four to five times the (total) cost “of” the NHS, it is broadly accurate in relation to the cost of smoking “to” the NHS—in England at least. Tax revenue from tobacco amounts to around 4.6 times the cost of smoking to NHS England. But wider losses smoking brings to the economy—such as through lost productivity—mean tobacco costs England around double the amount it makes.

ASH estimated that in 2023 smoking cost the economy in England at least £21.8 billion, of which £18.3 billion is attributed to smoking’s impact on productivity and smokers dying while still of working age.

If we compare this cost to the economy to the UK-wide tax revenue smoking creates, smoking costs over twice as much as it generates.

Source: Full Fact, 11 September 2024

See also: ASH - Latest figures show cost of smoking in England up 25% to at least £21.8 billion ([link removed]) .
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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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