From Action on Smoking and Health <[email protected]>
Subject ASH Daily News for 27 April 2021
Date April 27, 2021 1:08 PM
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** 27 April 2021
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** UK
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** Over a third of UK adults have changed their drinking habits in past year (#1)
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** International
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** Living in a home where someone smokes raises risk of developing mouth cancer by 51%, study finds (#2)
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** Finland looks into imposing tougher restrictions on smoking (#3)
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** Butting out: The life and times of a cigarette filter (#4)
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** 'Filter fraud' persists: the tobacco industry is still using filters to suggest lower health risks while destroying the environment (#5)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions (#6)
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** UK
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**
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** Researchers from University College London have found that over a third of adults in the UK (34.4%) reported a change in their drinking habits over the last year, and of those nearly half (49.1%) say they are currently drinking more alcohol compared to March/April 2020.

Of those who changed their alcohol consumption, men were more likely to report an increase in alcohol consumption than women (51.6% of men vs 46.6% of women), and people of all ages had increased their drinking similarly. However, there have also been decreases in alcohol consumption, particularly among the 7.5% of people studied who reported being heavy drinkers a year ago (15+ units a week). Overall, two fifths (40.1%) of heavy drinkers reported decreasing their alcohol intake.

The research, part of the COVID-19 Social Study, also found that more than 1 in 10 (12.9%) people who smoked in March/April 2020 say they have stopped smoking altogether. Almost all (98.5%) of non-smokers and ex-smokers have remained so during the pandemic. However, almost two fifths (39%) of smoking adults say they are currently smoking more per day than they were a year ago, rising to 44.6% among those aged 60+.

Source: Medical Xpress, 26 April 2021

See also: UCL - COVID-19 Social Study ([link removed])
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** International
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**
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** A new study has shown that a non-smoker who lives in a home where someone smokes is at a 51% higher risk of developing mouth cancer than if they lived in a smoke-free home.

The study is the first to link secondhand smoke exposure to oral cancer. The study was published in Tobacco Control and conducted by researchers from King’s College London who collected data from 6,900 people from around the world.

The study found that consistent exposure to secondhand smoke increases a person’s risk even further. A person who lives for 10-15 years in a home where someone smokes is more than twice as likely to get mouth cancer as someone who avoids all smoke, for example.

Source: The Daily Mail, 26 April 2021

See also: BMJ Tobacco Control - Secondhand smoke exposure and oral cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis ([link removed])
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**

On Monday 26th April, the Finnish Social Affairs Ministry proposed to revise the country’s Tobacco Act to remove logos and brand names from product packaging and ban the flavouring of all tobacco products. The revision would also ban smoking in certain public places like bus stops, public beaches, and playgrounds. The amendments also aim to reduce littering from tobacco products. The proposed changes would come into force gradually between 2022 and 2024.

Source: Euractiv, 27 April 2021
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** As the New Zealand Government considers banning cigarette filters as part of its Smokefree Aoteaoroa 2025 Action Plan, Nikki Macdonald of Stuff.co.nz show that the filter is simply a marketing tool with no safety benefits.

Filters were initially marketed as an attractive add-on to cigarettes. The first filter appeared in New Zealand in 1933 as tobacco company Du Maurier marketed a ‘’sportsman’s cigarette’’ which would ‘’guard physical fitness’’. The filter was made of vegetable tissue and cellulose fibres with later editions made of cork, cotton wool, or ivory.

But everything changed when the 1964 US surgeon-general’s report concluded that smoking causes cancer. The success of filters became essential to the survival of the tobacco industry. During the 50s and 60s, American tobacco companies spent millions researching synthetic paper-covered filters, retracting one version, made of crocidolite fibre, because it was a type of asbestos, causing cancer.

Stanford University researcher Bradford Harris has concluded that the real problem tobacco manufacturers found was that ‘’that which is harmful in mainstream smoke and that which provides ‘satisfaction’ are essentially one and the same.” Toxins could not be removed without worsening the taste. Harris concludes that manufacturers also began to realise that some fibres from plastic filters would enter smokers’ lungs – but kept this quiet.

Once manufacturers realised they could not deliver safer smoke, they switched to creating a perception of safety. Stanford historian Robert Proctor calls filters “the deadliest fraud in the history of civilisation’’. One version would change colour after smoking to suggest noxious chemicals had been soaked up despite little or no real effect. Most cigarette filters also end up as litter. Cigarette butts are the most common item of litter, creating a huge environmental issue, threatening flora and fauna. Public health experts support the ban on filters which they say is long overdue.

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** Source: Stuff, 27 April 2021

See also: BMJ Tobacco Control - The intractable cigarette 'filter problem' ([link removed])
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** After a long history of tobacco companies misleadingly advertising cigarette filters as making cigarettes safer, when the evidence suggests they do not and may actually increase the harms, tobacco companies are now exploring a new kind of filter which is biodegradable. Researchers from the University of Bath’s industry watchdog point out that we should regard this move with caution.

Biodegradable filters would still leach harmful chemicals into the environment if discarded improperly and are likely to be used as part of a Corporate Social Responsibility and marketing drive by the tobacco industry. Consumers should not be led to believe that filtered cigarettes are less harmful without plastic in their filters. The researchers are concerned that tobacco companies are already marketing their filter innovations to retailers in a way that connotates health benefits.

This has been enabled by loopholes in the existing EU and UK packaging and product legislation which do not refer to filter designs and innovations. Tobacco companies are exploiting these loopholes to differentiate their products and promote these strategies to investors. Adverts in the retail trade press include claims of improved filters such as tube or flow filters, firm filters, mineral filters, and crush filters. Associated marketing slogans convey connotations of cleanliness and reduced risk with investor reports highlighting filter innovations as ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’.

The researchers say that it is therefore time for the public health and environmental health communities to unite to ban filters for the benefit of both people and planet.

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** Source: BMJ Tobacco Control - 26 April 2021
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Read Article ([link removed])


** Parliamentary Activity
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**
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**
PQ1: Hospitality Industry: Smoking

Asked by Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Slough

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in light of new COVID-19 restrictions, what plans the Government has to implement a smoking ban in outdoor areas attached to pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes.

Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care

The Government has no plans to do so. Businesses themselves may make their own policies regarding such matters. In light of the impacts of COVID-19, the Business and Planning Act 2020 introduced temporary measures to make the process for obtaining a pavement licence for al fresco dining quicker and cheaper. Any licences granted under these temporary provisions will be subject to a smoke free seating condition, whereby the premise will need to make reasonable provision for seating outdoors, where smoking is not permitted. This will apply to businesses who obtain a pavement licence under the temporary provisions in the Business and Planning Act.

Source: Hansard, 27 April 2021
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** PQ2: Health and Life expectancy: Disadvantaged

Asked by Gill Furniss, Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve (a) life expectancy and (b) healthy life expectancy in the most deprived areas of England.

Answered by Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care

To support and drive local action to address inequalities, Public Health England, with the Association of Directors of Public Health and the Local Government Association, published an evidence-based resource Place Based Approaches for reducing health inequalities. This was produced to support cross-system action to address avoidable differences in health outcomes between populations and groups. We have a refreshed obesity strategy, are providing National Health Service health checks, have a tobacco control plan in place and the world’s first diabetes prevention programme. The NHS also funds national vaccination and screening programmes.

In March, we published ‘Transforming the Public Health System: Reforming the Public Health System for the challenges of our times’ which is available at the following link:

[link removed] ([link removed])

This sets out our plans to reform the public health system by establishing a new Office for Health Promotion within the department, with professional oversight from the Chief Medical Officer. The Office will lead work across Government to promote good health and prevent illness.

Source: Hansard, 27 April 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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