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** 24 June 2020
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** UK
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** Redbridge Council spent thousands on each smoker that quits (#1)
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** International
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** Jordan: Smoking rate highest in the world amidst claims of big tobacco interference (#2)
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** US: FDA proposes new health warnings on cigarette packs (#3)
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** US: Senate panel pushes for an increase in Georgia’s low tobacco tax (#4)
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** UK
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** Redbridge Council spent almost £5,000 for every smoker they helped quit between April and December last year. Figures released by the NHS show the council spent £197,975 on its stop smoking service during the period, including almost £50,000 on aids like nicotine gum, patches and sprays.
However, only 41 Redbridge residents reported that they quit through the service, out of 139 smokers who actively set a date to quit in that period, meaning less than a third succeeded, making it one of the worst outcomes in the country.
Counsellor Mark Santos, responsible for health, social care, mental health, and ageing, said the council “accepts the figures presented”. “It is important to stress they related to a period when we didn’t have a comprehensive smoking cessation service in place. We now have a provider in place.”
He added: “With summer now in full swing and the outdoors beckoning, there has never been a better time to quit smoking and help reduce your risk of serious illness. Quitting will also drastically improve your overall health and wellbeing.
“It is worth noting that Public Health England recently confirmed that if you smoke, coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms may be more severe.”
Source: East London & West Essex Guardian, 23 June 2020
See also: NHS Digital - Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services in England - April 2019 to December 2019 ([link removed])
Today is the day ([link removed])
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** International
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** Smoking rates in the Kingdom of Jordan have become the highest in the world amidst what public health advocates say is widespread interference in policymaking by multinational tobacco companies.
A 2019 government survey, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), showed that more than 8 out of 10 men in Jordan smoke or use nicotine products. Jordanian men who smoke daily consume an average of 23 cigarettes a day, the survey found. The research showed 66% of Jordanian men, and more than 17% of women were smokers (excluding smokeless tobacco and other nicotine containing products), surpassing Indonesia, which had the world’s highest tobacco usage.
Firas al-Hawari, a physician and head of the cancer-control office at Amman’s King Hussein Cancer Center, said: “The rates are dangerously high and a predictor of a future public health catastrophe.”
Industry analysts and public health advocates said Jordan’s rates were exacerbated by the influence of big tobacco, which they said could operate with comparatively few restraints. Rima Nakkash, an associate professor of public health at the American University of Beirut, said: “These companies continue to exercise as much political power as they can in wealthy countries, but they are more successful in lower-income countries where they face less transparency, can operate more in the dark and overwhelm whatever civic societies exist.”
A Guardian investigation of tobacco industry conduct in Jordan found:
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** Tobacco lobbyists, including from British American Tobacco (BAT), are regularly involved in debating regulations for their products in Jordan to an extent that anti-smoking campaigners say is inappropriate.
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** Jordan ranked second in the world for tobacco company interference in government, according to an analysis by a civil society group.
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** Claims that government officials were lobbied by tobacco industry executives on how they should implement public health legislation alongside offers of access to corporate social responsibility money.
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** Philip Morris International (PMI) has paid to refurbish schools in Jordan, provide children with school bags and run “career development” sessions for young people.
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** PMI also featured on the social media feeds of the Jordanian Prime Minister, promoting its economic contribution to the country.
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** Research funded by the UK government has found that smoking costs Jordan £1.85bn a year in healthcare and loss of productivity, the highest per capita figure in the world, outweighing the approximately £1.03bn the industry pays in taxes, fees and wages to local workers.
Source: The Guardian, 23 June 2020
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** The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new required health warnings on cigarette packs that carry stronger text warnings and graphic images showing the health consequences of smoking, a policy already in place in more than 120 other countries.
The proposal includes a combination of 13 text warnings and images that would have to be implemented by cigarette manufacturers if adopted once the public consultation period expires on 15 October 2020. The text messages include warnings about risks such as diabetes, eye damage, and the effect of secondhand smoke on children. The images show things such as neck tumours and diseased lungs.
The text and images would have to take up at least half of the front and back of a cigarette pack, and at least 20% of the area at the top of cigarette advertisements.
The move to include graphic images has been a decade in the making, and one the tobacco industry successfully fought in 2011. At that time, federal judges ruled the health warnings required by the FDA were unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Since then, the FDA and health organizations supporting the health warnings have developed a new approach that the agency hopes will withstand legal challenges.
This time, the FDA contends that the warnings are about educating consumers to the risks of smoking, rather than arguing that they would reduce smoking rates. The FDA is also proposing that the courts could decide which text warnings or graphic images are acceptable, rather than accepting or rejecting the entire package.
Source: The Blade, 23 June 2020
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** The Georgian Senate Finance Committee voted 5-2 on Friday 19 June to amend a House resolution and raise the tax per pack of cigarettes to $1.35. Georgia currently charges smokers 37 cents per pack, the third-lowest among the 50 states. The federal government charges an additional $1.01 in taxes on each pack of 20 cigarettes.
The move would also impose state tobacco taxes on electronic cigarettes and vaping products for the first time. Senator Randy Robertson told the committee that he favours the move because it will encourage people to smoke less. That, in turn, would mean less smoking-related disease and lower costs for the state-federal Medicaid health insurance program.
Tobacco control advocates and those who support more revenue for state spending have been pushing for a higher tobacco tax for years. Some would like to see an even bigger boost. “Lifting the tobacco tax to the national average of $1.81,” said Danny Kanso, a policy analyst for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, “would increase funding for public health and smoking cessation while helping to advance the state’s economic recovery.”
Source: Fox 5 Atlanta, 23 June 2020
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