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** 19 June 2020
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** UK
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** Study: How EU safety legislation has affected UK vapers (#1)
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** Teesside pension fund's investment in tobacco comes into question again (#2)
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** Wolverhampton: Smokers are being urged to #QuitforCOVID (#3)
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** International
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** Pakistan: Tobacco control groups applaud the Government for retaining tobacco taxation (#4)
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** Links of the Week
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** #QuitforCovid case studies (#5)
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** UK
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** Researchers from the University of East Anglia have done a study on consumers reactions to vaping legislation. The EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) was introduced regulations on vaping products to ensure safety, provide consumer information and deter young people who had never smoked before, from trying vaping.

The study is the first to investigate consumers’ views and experiences of the TPD regulations. The research team looked at 160 interviews and surveys as part of a wider study into e-cigarette use. Findings from the study reveal how, from a consumer perspective, future regulation should not further restrict liquid or tank volumes and nicotine concentration but should focus on ensuring e-liquid product safety.

Lead researcher Dr Emma Ward, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Switching to vaping is now the most popular way for people to stop smoking in the UK. We found that awareness about safety legislation was not universal, but on the whole, vapers were reassured by manufacturing regulations and requirements for ingredients labels.”

Dr Ward went on to say: “But the most worrying thing that we found was that the restrictions caused some people to buy higher strength e-liquids and prohibited components on the black market via countries where regulations do not apply such as China and the US – potentially putting their safety at risk.”

“Public health bodies, stop smoking services, and healthcare professionals should consider raising awareness about the regulations to smokers, to offer reassurance about vaping products and e-liquid ingredients. Harm reduction messages on the packaging, comparing e-cigarettes to tobacco could also nudge smokers to switch to less harmful vaping,” she added.

Prof Caitlin Notley, also from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “All of this is particularly important right now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since completely switching from smoking to vaping improves cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, smokers who switch to vaping might be expected to have a better prognosis if infected by COVID-19.
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Source: SCIENMAG, 19 June 2020

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** See also: ‘A Qualitative Exploration of Consumers’ Perceived Impacts, Behavioural Reactions, and Future Reflections of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (2017) as Applied to Electronic Cigarettes’ is published in the journal Tobacco Use Insights ([link removed])
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** A health cabinet member has questioned a council pension fund’s multi-million-pound investments in tobacco companies given Teesside’s struggles with the effects of smoking. The Teesside Pension Fund is the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) that looks after the retirement funds of council workers and many school employees on Teesside.

In September 2019, the Teesside Pension Fund value was about £4.3bn and past reports showed the fund invested £75m in tobacco stocks in 2018. The pension fund committee members agreed the fund’s “responsible investment policy” on Wednesday (June 17), designed to factor in problems such as climate change, modern slavery and deforestation when making stock purchases. However, Stockton Councillor Jim Beall was disappointed there was no place for tobacco on the list.

Councillor Beall said: “I am well aware we have a fiduciary responsibility in this committee - but I think we have missed an opportunity to put a marker down. Smoking is still the biggest single cause of premature death in the Teesside area… It impacts on our members, our families and communities our members live in - I would argue it is about the overall interests of our members, not just straight financial returns.”
Cllr Beall also told the panel the World Health Organisation (WHO) had advised tobacco companies “should not be engaged with, the very essence of their businesses cause death and chronic illnesses.”

Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “It is particularly the case in poorer more disadvantaged communities that smoking is damaging to both the economy and to people’s health. We produced a briefing, years ago about how councils can disinvest. There are now over 130 investment organisations and pension funds worldwide with over $10 trillion assets which have dis-invested from tobacco. Just this month the Universities Superannuation Scheme, the UK’s largest private pension scheme, announced it would disinvest from tobacco. They do have to follow their fiduciary duties - but the reason why many of these funds are dis-investing from tobacco is not just because tobacco causes chronic disease and premature death, but it’s also no longer a good investment.”

The Greater Manchester Pension Fund - the biggest local authority pension scheme in the country - pulled out of direct tobacco investments in 2014 on ethical grounds. Ms Arnott added: “If they can, anyone can.”

Source: Gazette Live, 18 June 2020

See also: ASH Briefing - Local authority pension funds and investments in the tobacco industry ([link removed] )
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** With evidence suggesting people who smoke may suffer more severe coronavirus symptoms than non-smokers, people are being encouraged to #QuitforCovid. Government guidance to smokers and vapers, says that people who smoke generally have an increased risk of contracting a respiratory infection and of more severe symptoms once infected.

It goes on to highlight that stopping smoking will bring immediate benefits to your health, including if you have existing smoking-related disease. This is particularly important for both you and for health services at a time of intense pressure on the NHS.
The guidance says that e-cigarettes can be an effective aid to stopping smoking and staying smokefree and, for most people, vaping remains significantly less harmful than smoking.

Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: “Smoking damages your lungs and weakens your immune system. This makes it more likely that you will have complications if you get sick and that it will take you longer to recover. Smokers are also much more likely to get other health problems. So, the best thing a smoker can do is to quit, to protect themselves, to protect others and to reduce the impact on health services. If you want to quit, there is plenty of information to help you, including support from the NHS and stop smoking aids.”

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** The #QuitforCovid campaign – www.todayistheday.co.uk – encourages people to join the conversation, share their own story of quitting and hear from other people how they are getting on with their quit attempts via social media using the hashtag #QuitforCovid.
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Source: The Phoenix Newspaper, 19 June 2020

See also: PHE guidance - COVID-19: advice for smokers and vapers ([link removed])


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** International
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** Tobacco control groups during an online session on Tuesday, 16 June 2020, thanked the Federal Government for retaining taxation on tobacco products in the 2020-21 budget despite pressure from the industry.

Malik Imran Ahmed, Country Head of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that every year, the tobacco industry tries to manipulate policymakers in order to fill its coffers at the expense of lives of more than 170,000 people who die due to diseases caused and aggravated by smoking.

Azhar Saleem, CEO, Human Development Foundation (HDF) stated that the country is facing a severe shortage of funds to combat the health and poverty crisis. The increase in taxation and Federal Excise Duty leads to more funds available for health and contributes to a clean and healthy environment for future generations.

Source: The News, 18 June 2020
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** Links of the Week
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** To help promote the #QuitforCovid campaign and encourage more smokers to give quitting a go, ASH is looking to gather case studies from people who have quit for Covid.

Help us to gather case studies by sharing the ‘Have you #QuitforCovid’ short survey with your networks and any recent ex-smokers who may want to get in touch.
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** The direct link to the survey is: [link removed]
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For more information call 020 7404 0242, email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or visit www.ash.org.uk

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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