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** 16 July 2019
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** UK
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** Boris Johnson campaign chief's firm lobbied councils for tobacco firm (##1)
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** International
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** USA: Juul boss says sorry to parents over child vaping (##2)
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** Study: Regulating e-cigarette flavours may prompt some people to smoke more (##3)
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** New data on e-cigarette use among New Zealand adults (##4) #7
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary Questions (##5)
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** UK
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The lobbying firm co-run by the man heading Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, Crosby Textor Fullbrook Partners (CTFP), has been writing to councils on behalf of tobacco company Philip Morris before the announcement of planned new anti-smoking measures expected in the government’s Prevention Green Paper. The Guardian has seen emails showing CTFP contacted councillors on behalf of Philip Morris, seeking to get the tobacco multinational involved in voluntary moves to curb cigarette smoking, as opposed to more onerous statutory efforts.
One of CTFP’s partners, Mark Fullbrook, has taken temporary leave from the firm to act as Johnson’s campaign manager. The lobbying efforts took place in April, while Fullbrook was still with the company. This comes just over a week after Johnson called for a reconsideration of “sin taxes” on highly sugared drinks. CTFP states that Fullbrook’s role at the company has no bearing on his work with Johnson, and that he currently has no contact with clients.
But amid continued delays to the publication of the
Save & Close ([link removed]) Prevention Green Paper, campaign groups and Labour have urged the Johnson camp to commit to not watering down tobacco control plans if he becomes prime minister.
They have also called on the health secretary, Matt Hancock, now a leading supporter of Johnson, to push ahead with the plans, which are expected to include a “polluter pays” levy in which tobacco firms would be forced to finance tobacco control measures, and compulsory cards inside cigarette packets detailing the health perils. The prevention green paper, originally due in the first half of 2019, was scheduled to be released this week, but the Department for Health and Social Care says it does not have a confirmed publication date.
While it is understood that Hancock remains keen on the measures, campaigners fear the document is being held up by other ministers, amid wider wrangles about using Theresa May’s last weeks in office to tie the hands of a future government.
Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on smoking and health, said he was worried about the green paper being delayed: “What we do know is it’s held up, and that’s the concern [...] And a hold-up would not be acceptable, given that we want to get on with the job of preventing people from killing themselves.”
Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said the charity was urging Johnson “not to give in to any pressure to delay the green paper, or to remove the proposal for a charge on tobacco manufacturers to fund government’s anti-smoking measures [...] This is popular with the public, including Conservative voters, but it’s not what the tobacco industry wants [...] Tobacco manufacturers and their lobbyists, like Crosby Textor Fullbrook, are urging cash-strapped local authorities to enter into voluntary partnerships instead, and say they want to support councils’ smoking cessation programmes when in reality it’s about promoting their own products.”
Source: The Guardian, 16 July 2019
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** International
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The boss of e-cigarette giant Juul has apologised to parents amid worries of an epidemic of vaping among children in the USA, in a television documentary being aired on Monday 22^nd July. Juul, which has begun a marketing push in the UK, is trying to cut teenage use, but faces lawsuits from parents.
"I'd tell [parents] I'm sorry their child's using the product. It's not intended for them," Kevin Burns said. "I hope there was nothing that we did that made it appealing to [children]. As a parent of a 16-year-old, I'm sorry for them, and I have empathy for them, in terms of what the challenges they're going through."
Source: BBC News, 15 July 2019
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A survey of younger people suggests that placing certain restrictions on e-cigarettes could prompt some to use tobacco products more. Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina conducted a survey of 240 dual users of tobacco and e-cigarettes aged 18 to 29, to see what effect restrictions on e-cigarettes could cause.
They asked the group to respond to three hypothetical scenarios: one in which e-cigarettes in the US are only nicotine-free, one where they are only available in tobacco or menthol flavours and one in which users can’t modify or customise vaping devices to alter the nicotine dose.
About 47% of respondents said that if regulations eliminated the nicotine in e-cigarettes, they wouldn’t use them as much and would increase their use of tobacco cigarettes. About 22% said they would make the same changes if regulations limited their ability to customise their devices. And 17% said that if flavours were limited to tobacco or menthol, they would decrease their use of e-cigarettes and smoke more tobacco.
Source: New Scientist, 15 July 2019
Substance Use & Misuse: Young adult dual combusted cigarette and e-cigarette users’ anticipated responses to hypothetical e-cigarette market restrictions ([link removed]) . July 2019
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Around one in six New Zealand adults have tried e-cigarettes but only 2% are using them currently, a national survey has found. However, the research led by the Health Promotion Agency and recently published in the scientific journal Addictive Behaviours also found that more than half (56.5%) of current smokers had at least tried e-cigarettes.
Paper co-author, Professor Richard Edwards, who is Co-Director of the ASPIRE 2025 Research Group at the University of Otago, Wellington, says daily use is highest among current smokers (3.1%) and among people who had quit smoking in the last year (9%), but there was no daily use among people who have never smoked.
Source: Medical Xpress, 15 July 2019
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** Parliamentary Activity
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Asked by Andrew Percy, Brigg and Goole
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to reduce cigarette end littering.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of discarded cigarettes on ocean plastic pollution.
Answered by Dr Thérèse Coffey, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government has made no specific assessment of the effects of discarded cigarettes on ocean plastic pollution. However, there is some evidence that in marine environments cigarette butts contribute to microplastics. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science is working to look at the impact of cigarette butts in the marine environment. This project is due to be completed next year.
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The Litter Strategy for England was published in April 2017.
We are considering how we can ensure that manufacturers are held responsible for covering the costs of clearing up litter from cigarette butts.
** Source: HC Deb, 15 July 2019, cW
Link: [link removed]
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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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