30 August 2019

· Print smoking kills on every cigarette, health experts urge

· Keith Richards uses motorised ashtray to avoid upsetting Mick Jagger with his smoke

International

· US: Tobacco control advocates bemoan 'faltering' pace of FDA action

· Rugby World Cup in Japan not expected to be smokefree

Link of the week

· Over a billion fewer cigarettes smoked in England each year

Print smoking kills on every cigarette, health experts urge

Individual cigarettes should have warnings printed on them to discourage smokers, researchers have said. Experts at Stirling University tested how smokers felt about seeing the phrase “smoking kills” on each cigarette in the pack, rather than just on the packaging, and found that the approach deterred people from smoking.

The study, led by the Institute of Social Marketing at Stirling and funded by Cancer Research UK, recommends adding health warnings to individual cigarettes. Participants felt that a warning on each cigarette would make it harder to avoid the health message as it would be visible when one was taken from a pack, lit and left in an ashtray, and with each draw.

Women in the groups were particularly affected by the new designs, which were seen as depressing, worrying and frightening. Some suggested that people would feel uncomfortable smoking cigarettes on which the warning was boldly displayed.

Crawford Moodie, who led the research, said: “This study suggests that the introduction of such warnings could impact the decision-making of these groups. It shows that this approach is a viable policy option and one which would — for the first time — extend health messaging to the consumption experience.”

Source: The Times, 30 August 2019

Addiction research and theory: Extending health messaging to the consumption experience: a focus group study exploring smokers’ perceptions of health warnings on cigarettes. 2019

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Keith Richards uses motorised ashtray to avoid upsetting Mick Jagger with his smoke

It has emerged that Keith Richards, guitarist of Rolling Stones, uses a motorised ashtray that sucks in cigarette smoke to avoid upsetting the health conscious singer, Mick Jagger. The circular device is being used in the shared backstage area.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said: “First and foremost it’s illegal to smoke backstage in the UK. Secondly and just as importantly there is no evidence that smokeless ashtrays are effective at eliminating the harm caused by tobacco smoke, either for smokers themselves or the people around them."

Source: The Telegraph, 29 August 2019

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International

US: Tobacco control advocates bemoan 'faltering' pace of FDA action

In 2009, the US implemented the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which allowed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin regulating cigarettes and other tobacco products responsible for a half-million American deaths annually. The Act gave the FDA responsibility for developing regulations to make cigarettes less addictive, less harmful and less appealing.

But a decade later, health advocates say the FDA has yet to put in place the most sweeping changes envisioned by Congress. Efforts to bolster cigarette warnings and ban harmful ingredients have been stymied by tobacco companies. And the pace of progress is so slow that the FDA now faces lawsuits from tobacco control groups who are suing the agency to take action.

Earlier this month the agency proposed new graphic warning labels for cigarette packets, a court-ordered move triggered by a lawsuit from the American Lung Association and other health groups who alleged the agency was dragging its feet on the effort. A 2011 attempt at requiring the labels was defeated in court by tobacco companies.

Micah Berman, a public health lawyer at Ohio State University and former FDA advisor, argues that FDA regulation has not yet had a measurable impact on the US smoking rate. Since 2009, the US adult smoking rate has fallen from 21% to 14%, but Berman argues that this decline continues a decades-long trend attributable to longstanding measures, such as smoking bans, cigarette taxes and anti-smoking campaigns. "[The] FDA was given the authority to make tobacco products less toxic, less addictive and less attractive and it has not finalized one product standard to do any of those things."

Source: Medical Xpress, 29 August 2019

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Rugby World Cup in Japan not expected to be smokefree

Match spectators will be allowed to smoke in designated spaces inside and outside stadiums during the Rugby World Cup starting next month in Japan, in stark contrast with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics whose venues will be completely smoke-free. Critics have questioned the World Cup organizer's policy, saying it runs counter to the global tobacco control trend.

The World Cup organizing committee has decided to ban indoor smoking at the 12 venues in principle, but will nevertheless create special rooms for smokers within the stadium buildings. The decision was based on Japan's revised Health Promotion Law aimed at preventing secondhand smoking, which was enacted last year and will take effect next April. The legislation has drawn fire from experts for having many loopholes.

Source: Kyodo News, 30 August 2019

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Link of the week

Over a billion fewer cigarettes smoked in England each year

Cancer Research UK has published a new study: Comparison of Trends in Self-reported Cigarette Consumption and Sales in England, 2011 to 2018.

The study shows that average monthly cigarette consumption fell by a quarter between 2011 and 2018 - equating to 118 million fewer cigarettes smoked each month. Figures from 2018 showed just 14.4% of people over 18 in England smoked cigarettes, down by about 5 percentage points from 2011.

Read Study

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