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Health Secretary voices concern at the return of duty-free under no-deal Brexit
Matt Hancock has voiced concerns at the government’s plan to reintroduce duty-free alcohol and cigarettes if there is a no-deal Brexit. Critics claim the policy, which the Treasury unveiled on Tuesday, is at odds with the government’s plans for a smokefree England by 2030 and reductions in alcohol-related harm. The health secretary signalled his concern when quizzed about it at Public Health England’s annual conference on Wednesday 11th September in Coventry.
“We’ve got to keep winning this argument,” Hancock told a delegate who said the possibility of “cheap booze and fags” post-Brexit did not square with ministers’ desire to end smoking completely by 2030. “Look, I don’t think that the return of duty-free was really seen from within a public health context, shall we say, before publication. Certainly, I didn’t see it before publication but – leave that one with me.”
The Treasury declined to respond to Hancock’s remarks or the mounting criticism its policy has prompted. A spokesperson said only that: “The return of duty-free with the EU means people travelling to and from EU countries will be able to buy goods under the same rules as people travelling to and from non-EU countries.”
Source: The Guardian, 11 September 2019
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US vape fears could hit UK anti-tobacco efforts
UK health officials have said that the worst thing vapers could do is to go back to regular cigarettes out of fears over vaping-related lung diseases. While the US Food and Drug Administration is urging people to avoid buying vape products off the street, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Medical Association say people should avoid all e-cigarettes until the cause of the diseases is clear.
“You’re terrifying people who are benefiting from vaping by not smoking,” said Clive Bates, the former Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and a strong defender of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool. Bates argued that authorities should be delivering more targeted warnings about unregulated products.
Deborah Arnott, current Chief Executive of ASH said: “After five confirmed deaths and 450 reported cases of lung illness linked with use of e-cigarettes in the US, it’s understandable that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending people stop vaping. However, to put this in context, the CDC’s own figures show that cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 US deaths a year and for every death another 30 people are living with a serious smoking-related illness. It would be a mistake for any vaper who stops vaping to revert to smoking.”
“ASH is concerned that the reports from the US will be discouraging vaping in the UK. British vapers can be reassured that there have been no reports of serious side effects from UK e-cigarettes. But they should only be buying from mainstream suppliers who are selling regulated products, to use black market products carries risks that can’t be quantified.”
Source: Politico, 11 September 2019
See also: Politico, Europe's missing 'vaping sickness'
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Jeremy Paxman calls for cigarette tax to fund anti-litter campaign
Jeremy Paxman will call today (12 September 2019) for a tax on cigarettes to fund an anti-litter campaign and accuse the “utterly useless” environment department of failing to prevent Britain from turning into “a rubbish dump”.
In a speech at a waste industry conference in Birmingham, Paxman will call for a 0.5 pence levy on each cigarette to help fund a £155 million “highly professional, genuinely collaborative, national behavioural change campaign to make litter socially unacceptable”. Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter, found on 79% of 7,200 sites surveyed last year.
Source: The Guardian, 12 September 2019
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USA: Donald Trump proposes ban on flavoured e-cigarettes
On Wednesday, Donald Trump said that his administration will propose banning thousands of flavours used in e-cigarettes to combat underage vaping. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will develop guidelines to remove from the market all e-cigarette flavours except tobacco, the health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, told reporters during an Oval Office appearance.
Trump said vaping has become such a problem that he wants parents to be aware of what’s happening. “People are going to watch what we’re saying, and parents are going to be a lot tougher with respect to their children,” he said.
It will take several weeks to develop the proposed flavour restrictions, which will be subject to public input before taking effect. The proposal would only apply to nicotine vaping products, which are regulated by the FDA.
Source: The Guardian, 11 September 2019
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Health Secretary Speech: How we make public health fit for the future
Yesterday, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock delivered a speech at the Public Health England Annual Conference in Warwick, touching on the future of public health and the challenges and opportunities of the next decade.
Hancock said: “Our prevention green paper has set an ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030. Ten years to get people to give up cigarettes or switch to less-harmful alternatives. It’s a big ask, but I’m confident we can do it – through a proactive approach to prevent young people from taking up smoking, and through personalised support to help persistent smokers kick the habit. Personalised prevention: this must be the guiding principle of public health in the 2020s.”
Read the full transcript of the speech here.
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For more information call 020 7404 0242, email [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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