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This Stoptober, smokers across the Isle of Wight are being encouraged to put their lungs first, strengthen their immune system and breathe easier ahead of flu season by joining over 2 million smokers nationwide who have made a quit attempt as part of the annual Stoptober campaign since 2012.
The smoking prevalence among adults in England is at a record low of 13.9%, and in the South East is 12.9%. This year, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has calculated that in the South East, 136,000 people stopped smoking during the coronavirus lockdown, with a million people quitting across the UK. Official figures show smoking rates in Hampshire & Isle of Wight remain low with just 14.4% of Islanders listed as smokers. The total annual cost of smoking to the NHS across Hampshire & the Isle of Wight is said to be £91.6million.
This year, Stoptober is offering a range of free support tools for those looking to quit, including digital services that are easily accessible for those looking for online support. These tools include the Stoptober app, Facebook messenger bot and online communities, SMS, and daily emails. There is also a Personal Quit Plan that helps people find a combination of stop smoking support that is right for them, with options including expert support from local Stop Smoking Services, stop smoking aids and digital tools.
Source: Island Echo, 21 September 2020
See also: Belford Today - Council hopes Bedford smokers quit cigarettes as part of Stoptober
ASH Regional press releases: A million people have stopped smoking since the COVID pandemic hit Britain
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Smoking and candles have been prohibited from balconies of a Glasgow block of flats over “Grenfell Tower” cladding fears. Residents have been warned that a simple cigarette butt could be “highly dangerous” after a report classified 22 points as posing an “intolerable risk.”
James Gibb, a specialist in fire assessments, completed a report saying work needs to be done to make external walls, balconies and pre-assembled structural panels used as separating walls safe.
Stage one includes a ban on candles, patio heaters, barbecues and storing gas tanks on balconies. It also bans smoking, stating: “Under no circumstances should cigarette ends be thrown from the balcony as this is highly dangerous.”
Source: Glasgow Live, 21 September 2020
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Experts have disagreed over results from a study, released by James Cook University, which compared Australian and New Zealand smoking rates between 2002 and 2017, specifically focusing on when plain packaging came into effect in Australia in 2012. The study puts forward the premise that plain packaging had zero impact on smoking prevalence. Instead, it resulted in smokers just buying cheaper brands, making them smoke more.
Experts say the study is “flawed” as the researchers did not include tobacco tax rises as part of their control variables.
Simon Chapman AO, an Emeritus Professor at the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, said: “…This omission fatally undermines the validity of this study. The authors seem unaware that New Zealand implemented a major 10% compounding tobacco tax increase in January in each of 2011-13, while Australia had no real tax increases between 29 April 2010 and 1 December 2013. The decline in Australia’s smoking prevalence following the introduction of plain packs in 2012 was comparable to that in New Zealand [NZ] even though NZ had huge tax increases around that time.”
He concluded by saying, “Tobacco tax is universally acknowledged as being the single most important variable in driving down tobacco use, which is why the tobacco industry has always lobbied hard against tax rises. However, the intensity of its global lobbying against plain packaging was unprecedented: it fears plain packaging like no other policy.”
Ron Borlan, deputy director for Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change said the study showed flaws in the process of curating the findings. “This is truly a terrible paper. It is very high on equations and technical terms but is based on weak data and assumptions that are manifestly inappropriate.”
Source: New Daily, 22 September 2020
See also: Nature - The effectiveness of plain packaging in discouraging tobacco consumption in Australia
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Germany will finally ban outdoor tobacco advertising from 2022, the parliament announced on Friday 18 September 2020, becoming the last country in the European Union to do so. Tobacco advertising is already outlawed in German media, but the country has long been the only EU member state that still allowed street posters and cinema advertising.
Julia Klöckner, the minister responsible for consumer protection, said that the far-reaching restrictions were long overdue and that “health protection must be the top priority here.”
The new legislation also stipulates that from January 2021, cinemas must stop advertising tobacco products before films where children and young people may be present. E-cigarettes will be included in the restrictions from 2024. Distribution of free tobacco samples will also be prohibited outside of specialist stores from the start of 2021.
According to official data, the tobacco industry in Germany spends some 100 million euros ($118 million) a year on advertising in cinemas and the streets.
Source: ABS CBN News, 19 September 2020
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PQ1: Tobacco: Packaging
Asked by Emily Thornberry, Labour, Islington South and Finsbury
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance the Government has provided to the UK tobacco manufacturing industry on the source of the pictorial health warnings that they are required to use on products manufactured for sale in (a) Great Britain and (b) Northern Ireland, from 1 January 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
The Department published guidance on 19 August 2020 outlining the requirements for labelling tobacco products after the end of the transition period. The guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/labelling-tobacco-products-after-the-end-of-the-transition-period
Source: Hansard, 21 September 2020
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-09-11/88835
PQ2: Electronic cigarettes – DHSC
Asked by Lee Anderson Conservative, Ashfield
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the proportion of people switching to e-cigarettes in (a) 2020 and (b) 2019; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
Public Health England (PHE) published the latest review of the evidence on e-cigarettes and vaping in England in March this year. The review provides a full analysis of trends in behaviours and attitudes relating to the use of nicotine vaping products among young people and adults. It found that prevalence of e-cigarette use has remained stable since the 2019 review.
This review can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vaping-in-england-evidence-update-march-2020
Data for 2020 will be published in early 2021 in PHE’s next e-cigarette evidence update.
Source: Hansard, 21 September 2020
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-09-10/88391
PQ3: Tobacco: Research DHSC
Asked by Sir Charles Walker Conservative, Broxbourne
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 30 January 2020 to Question 8193 on Tobacco: Research and Question 8194 on Smoking, when the Government plans to announce the call for evidence to assess further the effectiveness of heated tobacco products in helping people to quit smoking and reducing associated health harms.
Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
In the prevention Green Paper consultation ‘Advancing our health: Prevention in the 2020s’ the Government indicated that we will consider running a call for independent evidence to assess further how effective heated tobacco products are, or are not, in helping people quit smoking and reducing health harms from smoking. This forms part of our commitment to evaluate the evidence on new products. This work is currently paused due to the need to prioritise work on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We will consider looking at this at a later date to form part of our smokefree 2030 plans.
Source: Hansard, 21 September 20202
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-09-08/86574
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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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