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New figures from the Welsh Government’s latest Maternity and Birth statistics have shown an alarming rise in the number of women smoking throughout their pregnancy in Wales. The figures show that around 5,000 babies were born to mothers who smoke in 2020, with one in six mothers (17%) smokers at the time they gave birth, 1% than the previous year.
Smoking rates were highest amongst pregnant 16-19-year-olds with one in three (35%) smoking throughout their pregnancy – an increase of 5% on the previous year. There has also been a rise of 5% in the number of women 40-44 who smoke throughout pregnancy. The figures did however show that 18% of women who were smokers at their initial assessment had quit by the time of the baby’s birth.
Following the release of the figures, ASH Wales is calling for pregnant smokers to be offered financial incentives and additional support to quit smoking. Programmes offering pregnant women shopping vouchers as incentives to quit smoking have already been successfully run across the UK. ASH Wales is also calling for targeted smoking cessation support in areas of Wales where smoking prevalence is highest, specialist support for pregnant teenagers, and regular CO monitoring of all pregnant women.
ASH Wales CEO Suzanne Cass said: “It is extremely worrying that rates of smoking in pregnancy in Wales remain so high, putting the lives of thousands of babies at risk every year. We are calling for a package of measures to provide specialist smoking cessation support for all pregnant women in Wales especially teenage smokers.”
Source: Wales 247, 14 May 2021
See also: Welsh Government - Maternity and Birth Statistics: 2020
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Two specially-trained ‘’tobacco dogs’’ have helped trading standards officers seize almost 6,000 cigarettes suspected to be counterfeit in Oxfordshire. The dogs, named Yoyo and Cooper, took part in operations in Oxford, Bicester, and Banbury as part of a series of operations by the county council to seize smuggled and fake tobacco products.
The dogs sniffed out the cigarettes from a vehicle linked to one shop and helped to discover 21kg of shisha tobacco from another shop. The operation took place under Operation CeCe, a national trading standards campaign in partnership with HMRC to tackle illegal tobacco.
Source: BBC News, 13 May 2021
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New NHS figures have revealed that almost 5 million people in England are waiting for hospital treatment and more than 400,000 have seen their surgery delayed for almost a year. In March, 4,950,297 people in England were on the NHS waiting list for treatment that under the health service’s constitution it should provide within 18 weeks, a record high.
The number of people who have been forced to wait 52 weeks or more for their care has topped 400,000 for only the second time since records began and stands at 436,127. The figures are expected to increase even further as people who did not seek or could not access care for non-Covid conditions such as cancer and heart disease are now visiting their GP and being referred to hospital.
NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation have warned that it will take three to five years to tackle the backlog and get waiting times back on track. Some hospitals are putting on extra sessions of surgery in the evenings and at weekends, but many staff are exhausted after Covid. NHS organisations are pressing for ministers to commit extra billions over the next few years, over and above the services core funding and already agreed cash to cover extra Covid costs.
Boris Johnson expressed confidence that the NHS “can cope’’ but called the backlog a “massive national challenge’’. The Government has committed £160m to tackling the backlog, which will be used to buy mobile CT and MRI scanning trucks, put on extra surgery in evenings and at weekends, and look after patients at home in “virtual wards”. NHS trusts will be given up to £20m each if they manage to carry out 20% more planned activity by July than they did at the same point in 2019-20, with the most effective measures becoming part of a “blueprint” for all hospitals to follow.
Source: The Guardian, 13 May 2021
See also: The Guardian - NHS to receive £160m to tackle backlog of care built up during Covid
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Sheffield Director of Public Health Greg Fell writes that there will be many opportunities to seize from the creation of the new Office of Health Promotion.
Fell writes that health improvement, which must be a core part of health protection efforts, means more than just exhorting individuals to behave differently. The use of apps and individual level measures, which have been mooted, should not overshadow efforts to tackle the commercial determinants of health such as the influence of industries like tobacco and alcohol. In doing so, the Government must resist calls by industries for greater self-regulation, which invariably means implementing the least financially damaging measures the industry can get away with.
Other challenges and opportunities include funding and proximity to Government, according to Fell. The new Office’s budget will be £18 per person, compared with the Singapore Health Promotion budget of £42 per person. The Office will, however, be closer to politics and the heart of Government, meaning it will be able to test the boundaries more and take advantage of the period in which health issues have perhaps the most traction they have ever had. Quick wins and win wins in other policy areas will be crucial.
To ensure an explicit focus on health as more than just individuals, Fell writes that more emphasis should be placed on a health in all policies approach and the role of local government and other government departments, such as education, welfare and benefits, housing, economic policy, transport, and leisure, in delivering it. Factoring this into the outcomes across departments, where it is often easy to see the consequences of inaction on health but tricky to see the successes, will be key.
Fell writes that local Health and Wellbeing boards could be a place to start with this, as well as a two-way conversation with Government departments to make them accountable for improving health outcomes. Better use of metrics, that do not just measure minute system change details, will help.
Source: Greg Fell Public Health Blog, 12 May 2021
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A new study has found that smoking and cardiovascular disease increase the risk of getting dementia. The study, conducted by researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute in USA and published in Scientific Reports, found that both exacerbate what is known as the ‘vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia’ (VCID), which arises as stroke and other vascular brain injuries impair memory, thinking, and behaviour.
The study also found that the effects of smoking in particular are more pronounced amongst females, while males are more impaired by cardiovascular disease. The effects of both are experienced as early as age 18. Researchers said that the reason for the differences depending on sex were not entirely understood. The study included 70,000 individuals worldwide between ages 18 to 85, the broadest single study age range used to date.
Source: Medical Xpress, 13 May 2021 See also: Scientific Reports - Smoking is associated with impaired verbal learning and memory performance in women more than men
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RSPH Webinar - Public Health and the State: RSPH and Professor Chris Whitty
In this webinar, part of a series called RSPH Sparks Debates, Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty shares his perspectives on Public Health and the State, exploring where the public believe Government has a role to intervene.
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Inspiring and engaging primary care colleagues to become role models and clinical leaders in tobacco cessation.
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Increasing awareness of opportunities and tools to improve outcomes by helping tobacco users quit.
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Increasing capability and confidence in use of behavioural techniques and pharmacotherapies for quitting.
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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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