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Cancer charities have launched a new campaign this week urging GPs to get better at checking for lung cancer in people who have never smoked. The campaign, backed by charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK, aims to raise awareness amongst GPs that lung cancer is a likely diagnosis even in never-smokers.
Around 6,000 non-smokers a year die of lung cancer, the UK’s eighth biggest cancer killer and the seventh commonest cause of cancer death worldwide. Sufferers often visit their GP several times with symptoms such as a persistent cough, breathlessness, or recurrent chest infections, before being referred to hospital and diagnosed, by which time most are too late to undergo treatment that may cure them.
The campaign is using portraits of nine patients by the photographer Rankin, all of whom were found to be incurable, and eight of whom are non-smokers. Advertisements featuring the nine patients will run in specialist media for GPs, such as GP Online and the British Journal of General Practice, and on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Smoking remains the number one risk factor for lung cancer, responsible for more than 70% of cases.
Source: The Guardian, 2 May 2021
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Patients with life-threatening coronary heart disease will be treated five times faster thanks to 3D scans being introduced on the NHS that allow for a diagnosis in just 20 minutes. The revolutionary technology can turn a regular CT scan of the heart into a 3D image, allowing doctors to diagnose them rapidly, NHS England said.
NHS England added that about 100,000 people will be eligible to use the HeartFlow technology over the next three years. The technology is part of the NHS long-term plan to cut the number of heart attacks and strokes by 150,000.
Smoking is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, known to double the risk of many cardiovascular diseases.
Source: The Guardian, 3 May 2021
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New research has revealed that more than £96bn of NHS funding has gone to non-NHS care providers over the last decade, including private firms such as Virgin Care. The amount of money flowing out of the NHS in England to for-profit companies, voluntary groups and not-for-profits has grown from £8.4bn in 2010 to £14.4bn last year, a 72% jump.
Private firms received £9.7bn of that £14.4bn for undertaking work such as planned operations, CT and other diagnostic scans, and community services such as district nursing, according to the Labour party analysis of NHS England’s annual reports and summarised accounts. Labour said that this figure represents 11.7% of the NHS total operating budget for 2019-20. It is likely that private firms have received well over £100bn across the whole decade 2010-11 to 2020-21.
The coronavirus pandemic and a 4.7 million-strong waiting list of patients needing hospital treatment, mainly surgery, is forcing NHS England to use the private sector more and more. Last year it signalled its intention to spend up to £10bn over the next four years outsourcing work to private firms in an effort to reduce delays for treatment such as cancer care. Opinion polls have found that voters of all party allegiances oppose NHS care being outsourced.
Source: The Guardian, 3 May 2021
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A new Penn State study has found that anti-tobacco media campaigns that directly target vulnerable minority groups may be no more effective for the intended group than more broadly appealing ads.
In the study, the researchers tested the efficacy of anti-tobacco advertising that targeted two vulnerable groups—Black individuals and sexual/gender minority individuals – and published results in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. In the web-based experiment, 1,161 young American adults were asked to watch one of eight advertisements at random. Around one-third of the respondents identified as Black, one-third as a sexual/gender minority and one-third as neither. Participants were shown adverts from The Truth campaign, aimed at exposing the malevolent tactics of the tobacco industry.
The researchers found little evidence that the targeted ads were influential for the intended group. When the ads were made specifically for their in-group, there was little effect on those groups' beliefs and motivations toward tobacco. However, the research found that anti-tobacco advertisements for a general audience, focused on exposing tobacco industry tactics, elicited anger across all surveyed groups and that anger was associated with greater support for tobacco control policies and negative attitudes toward the industry from the respondents.
Source: Medical Xpress, 30 April 2021
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Though the ban on menthol cigarettes and cigars is most welcome, we should recognize that the fight is not over yet as implementing the ban could take years, writes Kenneth Warner.
The ban on menthol cigarettes is to be welcomed. The mortality rate among African Americans from smoking exceeds that of white Americans, despite African Americans smoking fewer cigarettes and starting later. One reason is that a large percentage of African Americans smoke menthols, which make it easier to start smoking, to become an established smoker, and harder to quit. A disproportionate number of the additional deaths caused by menthol cigarettes are experienced by African Americans.
However, Warner says we must recognize that the proposed ban announced last week is likely to take years to implement. There are two major time-consuming impediments. One is the complex and lengthy bureaucratic maze that the FDA must traverse. The second is the protracted tobacco industry legal challenges that inevitably follow any proposed regulation that might reduce cigarette sales. Tellingly, the cigarette companies’ stock prices hardly budged in response to the news given the expected delay.
Warner says we can expect the political battle over the proposal to be intense throughout the coming years. Some prominent African Americans, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, have called the policy discriminatory. In answer to these arguments Warner notes that the ban would have legal ramifications only for the manufacturers and distributors of cigarettes and not individual consumers, and that the ban would significantly reduce the disparity in life expectancy between Black and White people in America.
Source: Med Page Today, 3 May 2021
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PQ 1-2: Litter: Tobacco
Asked by Baroness Hayman of Ullock
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to establish regulatory mechanisms for imposing extended producer responsibility on the tobacco industry; and how any such plans will ensure the industry takes financial responsibility for the costs associated with discarded cigarette butts.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to set a timetable for establishing a regulatory mechanism for imposing extended producer responsibility on the tobacco industry.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, Conservative, Life Peer
New research conducted by Eunomia for Defra and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) indicates that cleaning up littered cigarette butts currently costs litter authorities in the UK around £40 million per year, rising to £46 million when including those disposed of in public bins.
We have recently announced our intention to explore regulatory options to ensure that the tobacco industry takes sufficient financial responsibility for the toxic litter created by its products. Supported by the Department of Health and Social Care, Defra is now actively exploring the suitability of regulatory options to reduce tobacco litter and we plan to conduct further research this year.
This research will help inform next steps and we therefore cannot yet confirm a timescale. The Government will continue to work closely with stakeholders to address the issue. Government policy in this area must be developed in accordance with the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and its guidelines.
The Environment Bill will allow us to legislate for extended producer responsibility schemes, which could include requiring cigarette producers to pay the full disposal costs of products or materials that they place on the market, including littered cigarette butts.
Cigarette and tobacco product packaging will already be covered by the reforms to the packaging producer responsibility scheme, which are currently open for consultation.
Source: Hansard, 29 April 2021
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