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** 9 November 2020
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** UK
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** Children prescribed nicotine patches on the NHS to quit smoking (#1)
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** North West: Blackpool has highest rate of smoking in pregnancy in the country (#2)
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** International
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** Opinion: Tobacco — a slow-motion pandemic hindering achievement of the SDGs (#3)
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** US Study: Coming out as bisexual associated with increased risk of smoking (#4)
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** UK
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** Primary school children are being prescribed nicotine patches on the NHS to help them quit smoking. According to the NHS Business Services Authority, GPs prescribed 1,994 prescriptions for nicotine patches or gum to youngsters aged 17 or under in 2019. The number of prescriptions given to 12-year-olds was 31, with 73 to those aged 13, 240 to 14-year-olds and 557 to children of 15.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said 280 children a day were still picking up the habit and two in three of these would end up hooked on tobacco. She said: “GPs will only be prescribing nicotine to children who have come to them in desperate need. Nicotine patches and gum are highly cost-effective when compared to the costly treatment these children could well go on to require for cancers, heart and lung diseases if they are not given this help.”
Source: The Sun, 8 November 2020
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** More than 2,000 women across Lancashire were still smoking right up to the point when they gave birth. New figures from Public Health England (PHE) also reveal that Blackpool has a higher rate of smoking in pregnancy than anywhere else in the country, where almost one in four expectant mums were classed as smokers.
In Blackpool, there were 1,700 births last year, and 393 of those mothers (23.1%) were smokers. Across England, one in 10 pregnant women (10.4%) were still smoking up to their delivery date last year.
Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at Action on Smoking and Health, said: “Smoking during pregnancy places both mothers and babies at risk of serious harms, including stillbirth and birth defects. These harms are avoidable. National figures hide local variations with some areas making real progress while others lag. Places that have seen rates fall are those following evidence-based guidance on how to support women and their families to quit. Despite success in some parts of the country overall, the Government is very likely to miss its ambition to reduce rates of smoking during pregnancy to 6.0% or less by 2022. A new national strategy is needed that secures consistency in support for women across the country alongside approaches to bring down rates of smoking overall so more women are falling pregnant as non-smokers.”
Clare Livingstone, Professional Policy Advisor at the Royal College of Midwives, said: “It’s encouraging to see the rates falling, but we need to offer women more help and support so that they fall even further and faster. This means reversing the serious cuts to public health funding, including specialist stop smoking services. Smoking can harm the mother, and it can harm the baby, with the effects lasting long into that baby’s life. Investing in support for these women is an investment in the future health of our nation.”
Source: Lancs Live, 7 November 2020
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** International
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** Adriana Blanco Marquizo, head of the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, discusses how both the tobacco and COVID-19 pandemics have created unprecedented challenges for public health and development.
She highlights that tobacco is one of the leading cause of deaths and health inequality as it inhibits socioeconomic development at the household, national, and global levels. Additionally, it increases poverty and is obstructing progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She points out that why the focus is on public health interventions to curb COVID-19 that there is also a need to prioritise tobacco control.
She argues that “non-communicable diseases (NCDs), their risk factors, and tobacco use, in particular, must be an integral part of the immediate COVID-19 response and recovery as well as of part of building-back-better strategies to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
Adriana suggests that while the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is intended to be implemented in its entirety to be most effective, two measures can also help eliminate tobacco use. The first, is to support and help smokers quit and stay off smoking for good. While the second is an increase in tobacco taxes which will help discourage the use of tobacco, thus preventing the onset of new NCDs, and providing a much-needed increase in government revenues.
Adriana concluded by saying “Let us join forces to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental, and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.”
Source: Devex, 5 November 2020
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** A new study by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) has found that bisexuality is the identity most associated with smoking, especially around the time of coming out.
The researchers used data from the nationwide Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study and examined 7,843 youth and young adults over three years. They found out that those who came out as bisexual were twice as likely as consistently heterosexual participants to start smoking. Coming out as lesbian, gay, or another non-heterosexual identity, or having a consistent LG+ identity, was not associated with being more likely to smoke.
Dr Alyssa Harlow, the lead author of the study, said: “Bisexual young people may face unique forms of discrimination and stigma that increase their risk for smoking or other substance use behaviours. For example, they may experience stigma from heterosexual individuals as well as from within the LGB+ community. There’s also prior research that shows that bisexual populations have worse mental health outcomes than LG+ populations. The findings point to a need for public health interventions specifically designed to address the unique needs, experiences, and stressors associated with coming out and identifying as bisexual.”
Source: Medical Xpress, 7 November 2020
See also: Jama Pediatrics - Association of Coming Out as Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual+ and Risk of Cigarette Smoking in a Nationally Representative Sample of Youth and Young Adults ([link removed])
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