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** 15 July 2019
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** UK
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** Study: Dementia risk linked to smoking (#1)
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** Selbie: Stop talking big numbers when asking for funding (#2)
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** The Kings Fund: An open letter to the next Prime Minister (#3)
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** London: Over 13,500 cigarettes seized in raid on Hoxton shop amid council crackdown on illegal tobacco (#4)
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** Tobacco industry data shows constituencies with highest number of smokers (#5)
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** International
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** Document of the Week: Is the U.N. Revisiting the Ban on Big Tobacco? (#6)
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** Gears of War 5 will exclude smoking depictions after concerns raised by tobacco control organisation (#7)
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** UK
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** A new study published in the JAMA, has found that nearly everyone can lower their risk of dementia by up to a third, even if it runs in the family, by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This includes not smoking, exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet and drinking in moderation.

The study followed 196,383 people from the age of 64 for about eight years. It analysed people's DNA to assess their genetic risk of developing the disease. The study showed there were 18 cases of dementia per 1,000 people if they were born with high risk genes and then led an unhealthy lifestyle. But that went down to 11 per 1,000 people during the study if those high-risk people had a healthy lifestyle.

The researchers say cutting dementia rates by a third would have a profound impact in older age groups where the disease is more common. "It could equate to hundreds of thousands of people," Dr David Llewellyn, told the BBC.

Although this type of research cannot definitively prove that lifestyle causes different risks of dementia, the results conform to previous research and World Health Organisation advice.

Source: BBC News, 14 July 2019

JAMA: Association of Lifestyle and Genetic Risk With Incidence of Dementia ([link removed]) . July 2014

See also:
ASH Fact sheet: Smoking and Dementia ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed])


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** Local government should stop talking about “big numbers” when making the case in Whitehall for an improved financial settlement, Public Health England’s chief executive has said. Instead, Duncan Selbie told delegates at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy conference on Wednesday they should demonstrate how spending will improve inclusive economic growth.

Mr Selbie also said the biggest determinant of people’s health outcomes is their income, with striking differences across the country based on relative wealth between areas. Using the example of a 19-year difference in healthy life expectancy between Bradford and Guildford in Surrey, he said a person’s job “is the single biggest driver of closing that gap”.

“In every level of government, if you want to improve the health of people it is about the economic improvement of this country. I don’t think talking big numbers works because big numbers frighten the government – it will be ‘join the queue’. Talk with them about how that money might be used in a place where there is confidence in leadership.”

Mr Selbie also told the audience he has been arguing for a “decent” settlement for local government, but said he was expecting small improvements rather than major change.
“Things are getting better, but it is still quite difficult,” he said. “I am looking for marginal shifts over time; I am not interested in radical. We are not living in a world where there is a money tree. Difficult decisions will need to be made and they will need to be made locally.”

Mr Selbie said he strongly agreed with the conclusion of a recent government review that responsibility for public health should stay with local government.

Source: Health Service Journal, 12 July 2019
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Read Article ([link removed])


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** The Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, Richard Murray, has written an open letter to the final two candidates in the race to become Prime Minister outlining the issues he believes require political action to support the health of the nation.

“The first priority is reforming adult social care: fixing a system that many recognise is not fit for purpose and is at crisis point… Solving this will require the government to tackle the vexed question of how to pay for care in the long term, when demand for services is rising from a growing number of older people and people with disabilities.”

“With improvements in life expectancy flatlining and health inequalities widening, improving public health and prevention should be a much higher priority. People’s health and wellbeing are determined by a wide range of factors, so Cabinet ministers will need to work together to embed health across government policy. Ministers should make use of the full range of levers at their disposal, for example through bolder use of tax and regulation to address public health challenges, building on the success of the soft drinks industry levy.”

“The public health grant has been progressively cut since 2015/16, with significant consequences for local services such as sexual health clinics, stop smoking support and children’s health visitors. A government fully committed to improving the public’s health will need to reverse those cuts in the Spending Review. The present government’s commitment to publish a prevention Green Paper provides an opportunity to set out a new direction but it needs to be bold and ambitious if it is to address the challenges to the nation’s health.”

“Without urgent action, the aspirations of the NHS long-term plan will not be met, and quality of care will deteriorate. Health and care leaders are already engaged in developing a response to these pressures and the government should stand ready to provide them with the support they will need to make this work.”

Source: The Kings Fund, 8 July 2019
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Read Letter ([link removed])


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** Hackney Council’s trading standards team confiscated 13,700 cigarettes in a raid on a Hoxton shop last month as part of a clampdown on illegal tobacco. Officers made the discovery with the help of sniffer dog Pippa, who found the cigarettes alongside 129 illegal packets of loose tobacco stashed away in a sink unit and under the shop’s chocolate bar stand. The owner will now face prosecution for the sale of illegal tobacco.

Illegal tobacco has all the harmful properties of legal tobacco, but is also completely unregulated, and often sold much cheaper. The council says many smokers report that being able to buy it cheaply makes it harder for them to quit. It can also make it easier for youngsters get hooked from an early age, damaging their health and potentially bringing them into contact with criminals.

As part of its clampdown, the council is to host an illegal tobacco roadshow from 10am until 4pm on Tuesday 16 July at Tesco, Morning Lane, where residents can find out more about illegal tobacco, why it’s a problem and how to report premises that sell it.

Cllr Feryal Clark, the borough’s deputy mayor and cabinet member for health, added: “The sale of illegal tobacco has a huge impact on people’s health, making it easier for children to get hooked on tobacco and harder for people to quit.”

Source: Hackney Citizen, 12 July 2019
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According to analysis of ONS data by the tobacco company Philip Morris, people in northern Labour constituencies are four times more likely to smoke than in the Tory shires,. Hull, Burnley and Mansfield have Britain’s highest smoking levels while Kenneth Clarke MP’s Tory seat, Rushcliffe, has the lowest levels in the whole of Britain (3.6%).

Analysis ranking the smoking prevalence for every constituency found that of the 100 seats with the most amount of smokers, 64 are Labour, 16 Conservative and 15 SNP. Almost two thirds of the seats in the bottom 100 are in the North (44) and Scotland (16), with 20 in the South, 15 in the Midlands and 5 in Wales.

The Unsmoked Constituency Heatmap was created by tobacco firm Philip Morris Limited (PML) using the 2018 statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Source: The Telegraph, 15 July 2019

ONS: Adult smoking habits in the UK ([link removed]) : 2018
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** International
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** Michael Moller, who stepped down last month as the head of the U.N. office in Geneva, used his final day on the job to write to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, pleading the case for the tobacco industry and saying health expertise and cigarette jobs can contribute to global prosperity and improved understanding of health risks.

Top U.N. officials are prohibited from officially participating in any activities with representatives of the tobacco industry. In the memo, Moller suggests that it may be time to end a moratorium on U.N. cooperation with the tobacco industry, fuelling suspicions among some U.N. staff that the influence of tobacco giants—including Philip Morris International, which has a large corporate presence in Geneva—is being felt behind the scenes at the U.N. and the World Health Organization. Long before the U.N. launched its current debate, the U.N. health agency had cited “evidence from tobacco industry documents” demonstrating that “tobacco companies have operated for many years with the deliberate purpose of subverting the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) to control tobacco use. The attempted subversion has been elaborate, well financed, sophisticated, and usually invisible.”

The tobacco industry has been largely shunned by international organizations since 2005, when the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a watershed health treaty that aimed to reduce consumption of tobacco, came into force. Since then, WHO and the U.N. have refused to enter into corporate partnerships with the industry. For instance, the U.N. Global Compact, which was launched in 2000 to promote U.N. partnerships with the private sector, has long refused to engage with tobacco companies.

Source: Foreign Policy, 12 July 2019
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** Gears 5, the forthcoming instalment in the Gears of Wars third-person shooter game franchise, will not feature smoking. The decision to remove all smoking references from “Gears 5” came after the tobacco control non-profit, the Truth Initiative, approached Turner Studios’ ELeague e-sports division which has broadcast rights to the title, about making the change. Turner collaborated with ‘Gears 5’ developer, The Coalition, to remove smoking from the game.

The Truth Initiative, which is dedicated to ending tobacco use among young Americans, has targeted smoking imagery in video games given their popularity among younger consumers. For example, 62% of esports viewers in the U.S. are 18-34.

Robin Koval, CEO and president of Truth Initiative, said: “In the midst of the pervasive reemergence of glamorized smoking imagery in pop culture, we commend [The Coalition] for taking smoking out of ‘Gears 5’ and ELeague for featuring this tobacco-free game during this weekend’s competition. We are hopeful that this decision will encourage other game developers and streaming tournaments to follow this lead and level up the gaming experience by going tobacco-free.”

Source: Variety, 12 July 2019
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Read Article ([link removed])
For more information call 020 7404 0242, email [email protected] (mailto:[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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