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New evidence suggests that over half of smokers in England living with lung conditions want to ‘Quit for COVID’. The number of people with lung conditions looking to quit smoking in response to COVID-19 has increased from (50%) in April, to more than half (53%), in May. The figures come from a survey to mark ‘World No Tobacco Day’ on May 31 of over 12,000 people living with lung conditions in England, by Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation.
Research shows that people are 3 times more likely to stop successfully if they use a combination of stop smoking treatment and specialist help. The survey results show there is demand for this support to quit. Of those looking to quit, the majority have said that they would not want to quit ‘cold turkey’, with just under two thirds planning to quit using some form of support or aids recommended by health care professionals, such as nicotine patches, e-cigarettes and behavioural support Crucially more than a quarter of smokers with lung conditions said that they would look to turn to the NHS for support.
The Taskforce for Lung Health, of which Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation are both members, is calling for increased funding and access to stop smoking services across the country. The Taskforce found that last year, nearly 1 million smokers missed the opportunity to quit smoking due to cuts in funding.
Alison Cook, director of external affairs at Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation and chair of the Taskforce for Lung Health said: “…. Local providers need to be flexible with the support they can offer for people with lung conditions who are currently unable to leave the house or concerned about face-to-face meetings.
“The government have a target to make England smoke free by 2030. There is huge opportunity here, and we urge the government to ensure sustainable funding is available to meet the demand to quit.”
Dr Nick Hopkinson, Medical Director at the British Lung Foundation and chair of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “For anyone who smokes, quitting is the most important thing that they can do to protect their health and the health of those around them. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic because quitting smoking rapidly improves the health of your heart and lungs. The good news is, there is support out there to help you and I would urge anyone who wants to quit smoking to check out www.todayistheday.co.uk or search online for NHS smoke free.”
Source: The Hippocratic Post, 31 May 2020
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Health chiefs are urging smokers to quit during this coronavirus pandemic as smokers who contract COVID-19 are thought to be at greater risk of severe complications. Sunday (31 May) was World No Tobacco Day, and the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has published its top five tips for quitting smoking.
Deepak Dwarakanath, Medical Director and Deputy Chief Executive of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust said: “Not smoking is one of the best things anyone can do for their own health. Quitting is a real challenge and anyone who beats smoking deserves their own round of applause.”
The five tips include:
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Prepare – choose a quit date.
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Get help – contact your local NHS stop smoking service for specialist support and advice.
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Stay positive.
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Distract yourself from any cravings.
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Remember there is never ‘just one’ cigarette.
Source: Hartlepool Mail, 31 May 2030
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Writing in the Observer, Catherine Bennett, challenges the artist David Hockney’s assertions that smoking has a protective effect against coronavirus.
“David Hockney has also been inspired this springtime to renew his defence of smoking and to inveigh, again, against its “mean-spirited bossy dreary” opponents, and their misuse of cigarette packets. “Some of them are just plainly ridiculous,” he wrote last week. “A picture of a man in a hospital bed with his wife and children round him is suggesting surely that sorrow and grief would disappear if only people would stop smoking.” On the contrary, he argues on smoking’s behalf: “Love life.”
“Hockney, we learn, is not the only one delighting in reports suggesting that (“surprise, surprise”, he writes) smokers may, for reasons not yet known, be underrepresented among people with Covid-19. To the point that French researchers will trial nicotine patches to test for any preventative effect. “Could there be something in this?” Hockney asks, ignoring contradictory warnings that (a) the figures could be wrong and (b) smokers are at increased risk from the infection and (c) up to half of tobacco users will, virus or no virus, die of the habit. “Well,” he writes, as if to conclude the matter, “the only time I had the flu was 1969, the year I didn’t smoke.”
“For years, in his newspaper letters and public appearances, Britain’s most celebrated living painter has doubled as Big Tobacco’s greatest asset: a militant smoker who has become only more valuable as smoking bans have proliferated, health warnings intensified, and less fortunate famous smokers died prematurely.
“It may do little to appease the artist, but any less eminent smoker would long ago have lost credibility on this particular theme, well before COVID-19 denied many of his contemporaries one last sight of blossom.
Source: The Guardian, 24 May 2020
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Three men have been arrested after eight million suspected illicit cigarettes were seized during a Joint Agency Task Force (JATF) operation in Co Armagh on 30th May. This joint operation involved officers from Her Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The suspected illicit tobacco products are worth an estimated £3m in lost duty and taxes. A heavy goods vehicle and its refrigerated unit, a van and a forklift truck were also seized along with approximately £12,000 and €2,000 cash.
The operation led to a further eight searches across the border with almost €100,000 in cash recovered, thousands of duty stamps and approximately two and a half tonnes of hand rolling tobacco being confiscated.
Rowan Moore, Detective Superintendent from Police Service NI’s Criminal Investigation Branch, said: “We are committed to working alongside our partner agencies to combat the illicit trade of illegal tobacco and put those who seek to profit from criminality before the courts. Those trading in illicit cigarettes may be funding terrorism and criminality which brings misery and harm to local communities and today’s action sends a powerful message to those engaged in this type of criminality.”
Source: Armaghi, 31 May 2020
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An international group of independent experts with no conflicting links to the tobacco or vaping industry has criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for its backward-looking approach to innovation and new technology, such as vaping products during the observance of “World No Tobacco Day 2020.” Experts say they are exasperated by the WHO’s dogmatic hostility towards new technology and fear the UN health agency will squander the opportunity to avoid millions of premature deaths that will be caused by smoking.
Emeritus Prof. Robert Beaglehole of the University of Auckland, New Zealand and former director of WHO’s Department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion said: “unless it does something different and embraces innovation in tobacco policy, WHO will miss the targets for reducing cancer, heart and lung disease by some distance. Encouraging people to switch to low-risk alternatives to smoking could make a large difference to the burden of disease by 2030 if WHO got behind the idea instead of blocking it.”
Calling for WHO to refocus its efforts on the major objectives of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, Prof. John Britton, CBE, professor of epidemiology at the University of Nottingham and Director, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, said that, “on World No Tobacco Day, the WHO should be driven by one overriding question: How do we get smoking down for the greatest number at the greatest rate?”
“We know WHO embraces harm reduction in other areas of public health, including for illicit drugs and sexual health. …. WHO’s ‘quit or die’ approach to smokers and opposition to harm reduction makes no sense,” Britton said.
Drawing attention to the situation in India, Prof. Rajesh Sharan, of North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India said, “India carries a mammoth health burden of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease arising from the use of tobacco in many different forms, with over 200 million using traditional preparations such as gutka and paan, and another 100 million using smoking products such as bidis and cigarettes.
“Among them, the most adversely affected are the marginalized and disadvantaged population groups, including women. In my view, the decline in tobacco use has been worryingly slow despite WHO-FCTC being implemented in India. On the World No Tobacco Day 2020, I wish that the decline of tobacco use in all its forms and manifestations was more robust! The complex tobacco use landscape of India warrants a paradigm shift in the way WHO-FCTC to embrace harm reduction approaches," Sharan said.
The group was concerned that WHO was becoming obsessed with the tobacco industry, just at the time when the industry was facing a highly beneficial disruption by new technology.
“WHO is treating vaping products as though they are part of a ploy by Big Tobacco. But they have this 100 percent wrong. In fact, the new products are disrupting the profitable cigarette trade of the tobacco industry and driving down cigarette sales,” said David Sweanor of Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics at University of Ottawa.
Source: Manila Standard.Net, 01 June 2020
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Simon Harris, Irish Minister of Health, has called for European Union intervention against certain tobacco companies that he believes are “undermining” a ban on menthol-flavoured cigarettes. The ban was introduced in Ireland in May as a measure to prevent young people from taking up smoking.
Tobacco control group, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH Ireland), has also strongly criticised moves by certain companies for allegedly circumventing the ban with replacement products that seek to exploit loopholes.
Philip Morris International, the maker of Marlboro has just introduced a new product onto the Irish market that it described to retailers as a “menthol blend without methylation”. Philip Morris said it believes it is still in compliance with the ban because, it claims, the cigarette does not taste of menthol when it is smoked. It also criticised any Irish retailers that are still illegally selling its old menthol Marlboro Green brand, which The Irish Times found available to purchase in a Dublin convenience store on May 29th.
Japan Tobacco International (JTI), the Silk Cut maker that is ultimately one-third owned by the Japanese state also argued that its new replacement brand, Silk Cut Choice Green, is in compliance with the ban, despite admitting it uses menthol flavourings in its manufacturing.
A spokeswoman for Minister Harris, said: “It is clear there are many tobacco companies adapting their products and undermining the objective of the [ban]. Minister Harris believes this should be dealt with at EU level.”
Dr Pat Doorley, chairperson of ASH Ireland, said: “We are not surprised that the tobacco industry has tried to circumvent the ban by substituting mint flavouring. When the industry fails to prevent public health policy measures from being enacted they frequently resort to other tactics such as court challenges.”
Source: The Irish Times, 30 May 2020
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PQ1: Smoking
Asked by Conor McGinn (St Helens North)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is for banning the sale and production of menthol cigarettes in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 (TRPR), introduced a ban on flavoured cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco. The only exception was for menthol cigarettes where a four-year extension was allowed for the ban to come into force. This expired on 20 May 2020.
The published impact assessment of the TRPR, along with backed up by the international evidence base, states that menthol cigarettes act as a gateway into smoking, have particular appeal amongst young people, and that there is a misconception that they are healthier to smoke.
The introduction of the ban will save lives. Stopping smoking now will bring immediate benefits to health, including for those with an existing smoking-related disease
Source: Hansard, 29 May 2020
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-05-15/47341/
PQ2: Smoking
Asked by Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment Public Health England has made of the implications for its policies of recent research that cigarette smokers are less likely to contract covid-19; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
Public Health England (PHE) is monitoring the developing evidence on smoking and COVID-19 to inform its advice to the public and local and national healthcare systems.
At the request of PHE, an independent rapid review of the evidence on smoking and COVID-19 by researchers from University College London and the Royal Veterinary College will be updated regularly as a living review. The most recent report is available at the following link:
PHE advice remains that smokers should quit; there is no evidence to justify changing that advice.
Source: Hansard, 29 May 2020
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-05-04/43022/
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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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