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** 16 September 2019
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** UK
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** Sajid Javid reported to advertising watchdog over no-deal Brexit cheap cigarettes tweet (#1)
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** After six deaths in the US and bans around the world – is vaping safe? (#2)
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** Fake cigs big problem in Gloucester (#3)
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** International
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** New York moves to ban sale of flavoured e-cigarettes amid health concerns (#4)
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** UK
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Chancellor Sajid Javid's Treasury has been reported to the advertising watchdog for a tweet promoting the availability of duty-free cigarettes in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Direct and indirect advertising or promotion of tobacco products is prohibited under the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002.
The tweet, posted on 10 September said: “Duty-free shopping with the EU is coming back, if we leave without a deal. People travelling to EU countries will be able to buy beer, spirits, wine and tobacco without duty being applied in the UK.”
Labour's Deputy Leader, Shadow Culture Secretary Tom Watson, has reported the message to the Advertising Standards Authority. His letter, seen by the Mirror, says: “I believe this shameless promotion of cheap tobacco products is in direct contravention of advertising codes.” He cited rule 21.1 of the “UK code of non-broadcast advertising and direct and promotional marketing”, which says: “Tobacco products may not be advertised to the public.”
Action on Smoking and Health chief executive Deborah Arnott said: “This Government says it wants to end smoking in England by 2030 so why is it promising smokers cheap fags when the cheaper tobacco is the harder it is for smokers to quit. Smoking is the leading cause of premature death, killing 78,000 people a year, with 30 times as many as that suffering serious diseases caused by their smoking.”
“This is a policy it is estimated will cost up to £250million a year, money that could be much better used helping smokers quit not encouraging them to smoke more. Duty free should be ended not extended.”
Source: The Mirror, 14 September 2019
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Following the deaths of six people in the US who used e-cigarettes, Donald Trump has unveiled plans for a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes to protect, as he put it, “innocent children”. But Trump’s position has itself sparked alarm among some health campaigners.
“In the US every day, almost 2,500 children under 18 years of age try their first cigarette, more than 400 of them will become daily smokers,” said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health. “Half of all long-term smokers will ultimately die from smoking, amounting to 480,000 Americans a year. Children in the US commonly start by smoking menthol cigarettes, so why is the Trump administration leaving menthol cigarettes legal, while banning all flavours in e-cigarettes?”
The day the US unveiled its flavour ban, tobacco stocks went up. As analysts at Cowen Equity Research asked in a note shared with investors, “Flavour ban coming, boon for cigarettes?”
Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, is concerned that the backlash against e-cigarettes will be to the detriment of UK smokers. “Tobacco cigarettes cost the smoker one day of life for every four days they smoke,” Britton said. “It is by far in a way the most lethal legal product on the market. It’s inconceivable that e-cigarettes are as harmful as that. There will be cases of disease caused by vaping but, at the moment, 100,000 people a year die from tobacco. It’s not going to be 100,000.”
Source: The Guardian, 15 September 2019
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A shop in and a flat in Gloucester were the centre of an illegal tobacco and cigarette trading operation, a court heard. The shop owner – who has a previous conviction for a similar offence when he owned another Gloucester shop – has been found guilty of being involved and will be sentenced at a later date along with two other men.
Hidden in a footstool and a sofa, officers found hundreds of illicit cigarette packets and rolling tobacco pouches along £13,000 stashed the owners’ rucksack and an additional £2,125 elsewhere in the property.
The head of Gloucestershire Trading Standards has said there is a big problem with counterfeit tobacco in the city.
Source: Gloucester Review, 13 September 2019
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** International
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New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced an “emergency executive action” to ban the sale of flavoured e-cigarette products, amid an alleged surge in youth vaping and concern over its health effects. Tobacco and menthol-flavoured e-cigarette products would not be banned, Cuomo said.
The governor said New York’s top health official would convene an emergency meeting with the state’s public health council this week, to ban the products.
In order for the ban to be implemented, state health commissioner Dr Howard Zucker would make a recommendation to the public health council. If it agrees, there would be a two-week grace period before authorities began stepped up enforcement of retailers.
Source: The Guardian, 15 September 2019
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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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