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** 7 January 2020
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** UK
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** Council leaders call for urgent decision on May 6th local elections (#1)
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** Secretary of State for Northern Ireland met with tobacco industry regularly in the 1990s (#2)
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** The 'surprising' impact of lockdown on smokers in Leeds (#3)
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** Retailer caught selling illicit tobacco for third time (#4)
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** International
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** India's proposed changes to tobacco control laws face objections from tobacco industry (#5)
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** Raise cigarette prices to reduce smoking among China’s poor, academic says, after study links poverty and tobacco consumption (#6)
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** UK
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Council leaders have urged the Prime Minister to decide "as soon as possible" whether May's local elections across England will go ahead. Voters are due to go to the polls on 6 May for a series of council and mayoral polls which were due to happen in 2020 but were postponed by a year. The PM told MPs the date was set down in law but would be kept under review. But the County Councils Network said clarity was needed now given the scale of the challenge caused by COVID-19.

2021's elections are set to be the biggest for years, with seats up for election in more than 140 county councils, district councils and unitary authorities, including 118 which should have happened in 2020. 13 mayoral contests are also due, including in London, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, Liverpool City region and Bristol, while the London Assembly's 25 members will be elected.

Councils across England are concerned about how elections can be administered safely; whether there will be enough suitable venues for ballots to be cast and staff to man them, how social distancing can be maintained, how much it will all cost, and whether voter confidence will be knocked. Ministers have so far told council leaders no delay is planned, but many think that could easily shift depending on the course of this unpredictable pandemic. The government has signalled it will not allow a postal-only vote, saying this would "remove choice" from those who wanted to vote in person and increased the risk of fraud. The Electoral Commission has said it believes the elections can go ahead as planned.
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Source: BBC, 6 January 2021
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** Sir Patrick Mayhew, who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 1992 and 1997, met the Gallaher tobacco company management on an annual basis and agreed to represent their views to the chancellor as they fought against government efforts to make cigarettes more expensive to discourage smoking, declassified files reveal.

Two days after Sir Patrick’s appointment as secretary of state in April 1992, the Tobacco Advisory Council, a tobacco industry lobbying group, wrote him a letter of congratulations, highlighted its “constructive working relationship” with his predecessor, and suggested a meeting. Nine days after that, Gallaher chief executive Peter Wilson wrote his own letter of congratulations to Sir Patrick, telling him that he knew his predecessor for many years. He said that Gallaher always had an “excellent relationship” with the Northern Ireland Office and the Secretary of state, and expressed his “deep concern” over the company’s future before again suggesting a meeting.

The declassified file shows that Sir Patrick Mayhew met annually with Gallaher's management despite objections from the Department of Health at the time on the grounds that such meetings with the tobacco industry were not matched by meetings with the health lobby, giving the impression that that the government was more concerned with the promotion of the tobacco industry than the protection of public health. However, other officials within Government clearly supported Sir Mayhew's meetings, with one internal note stating “while understanding the DHSS concerns, IDB considers it important that the secretary of state continues to meet the tobacco industry”, it then went on to highlight Gallaher's contribution to the economy. Officials supportive of Sir Mayhew's meetings warned that refusual to meet would be publicised by Gallaher as an abandonment of the industry and the jobs they provide.

Source: News Letter, 31 December 2020
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** Leeds health officials have said they are surprised to see a drop in smoking rates and obesity levels since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Figures from last summer suggested that 18.2% of adults across the city smoke, marking a slight reduction from 18.4% recorded previously.

Over the same time period, there was 0.3% fall in the number of Leeds adults classed as being obese, to 22.7%. Speaking at a health scrutiny meeting this week, Leeds City Council's Executive Member for health, Councillor Rebecca Charlwood, said: “We’ve had a very unusual year given the challenges of Covid and what that means for access to services. Some of the figures have changed as a result of that, but we’ve had some surprising outcomes which are really good. We’ve had a reduction in the number of people smoking, which is very interesting because access to Stop Smoking services in person were naturally curtailed. So Covid hasn’t impacted that too badly.”

Although the prevalence of smoking has been steadily reduced in recent years, health officials said the new figures were unexpected due to the disruption in support services brought on by the pandemic, with services having to move online.

Source: Leeds Live, 7 January 2021
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** A Lancashire shopkeeper has been caught selling illicit tobacco for a third time, having been convicted of similar offences twice previously since January 2018.

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** The shopkeeper was caught selling improperly labelled packs of cigarettes for just £4.50 per pack. Admitting to six charges related to the sale of illicit tobacco, the shopkeeper was given a 12 week curfew and ordered to repay £567 in costs.
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Source: Lancashire Post, 5 January 2021
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** International
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** India had proposed sweeping changes to its tobacco-control law in 2015 as well but the proposal was dropped following protests from the tobacco industry. A Reuters investigation in 2017 found Philip Morris was deploying marketing tactics in India, including certain advertising at kiosks, in alleged violation of existing laws. India later threatened the company with "punitive action" and the company removed its ads from several tobacco shops. Tobacco industry spokespersons said they would be objecting to the new proposals through public consultation.

“It is a much needed proposal as there were some gaps previously. The key is going to be enforcement of the law once passed,” said Sanjay Seth, head of tobacco control at non-profit Sambandh Health Foundation.

India has over the years introduced tobacco controls and launched campaigns to deter its use, but enforcement of the law has been a challenge. The World Health Organization says nearly 1.35 million people die each year in India due to tobacco use. India released draft changes to its tobacco-control law over the weekend to ban smoking zones in hotels, restaurants and airports. The proposal also calls for increasing the minimum legal smoking age from 18 to 21. The draft changes would also tighten existing provisions to ban advertising at kiosks and prohibit sale of loose cigarette sticks, which form the bulk of the sales, health activists said.

India’s tobacco industry will object to a proposal to ban smoking zones in hotels and prohibit advertising at cigarette kiosks as the government steps up anti-smoking efforts, two tobacco industry executives said on Wednesday 6th January.
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Source: Reuters, 6 January 2021
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** See also: Reuters - India threatens Philip Morris with 'punitive action' over alleged violations ([link removed])
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** Researchers have found smoking rates among the poorest in China are considerably higher than the rate among the general population. The study involved 4,749 people aged over 40 from families in underdeveloped areas of central, northwest, northeast and southwest China, covering the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and Shaanxi. Those in the poorest areas had a 34.2% smoking rate compared to the national average of 26.6%.
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Lead researcher Professor Jin Chenggang said the current prices for a packet of cigarettes, which can be as low as 2 yuan (30 US cents), is too low. According to a 2018 report by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, half of smokers in the country spent less than 10 yuan for each packet of cigarettes they consumed. Professor Chenggang said that if prices were increased, and tobacco producers taxed more substantially, it would prevent low-income people from smoking and have numerous positive societal effects.

The research comes at a time of heightened discussion about the issue of poverty in China. The President, Xi Jinping, claimed in December that poverty had been eliminated, but many families are still unable to afford basic medicine and health care. According to national data, over 40% of household poverty in China is a consequence of illness and healthcare costs.

Source: South China Morning Post, 1 January 2021
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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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