View this email in your browser ([link removed])


** 09 June 2021
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


** MPs call on the government to stop the tobacco epidemic (#1)
------------------------------------------------------------


** Blog: Voters, including many smokers, want tough action to make tobacco history (#2)
------------------------------------------------------------


** North East campaigners call for tough new measures to end smoking (#3)
------------------------------------------------------------


** BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: Interview with Mary Foy MP (#4)
------------------------------------------------------------


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


** US study reveals changes in cigarette smoking during the COVID-19 pandemic (#5)
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


**
------------------------------------------------------------


** MPs have called for a consultation on raising the age of sale from 18 to 21 to end the “tobacco epidemic” by 2030. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on smoking and health has recommended raising the age of sale from 18 to 21 as part of tougher tobacco regulations to protect children and young people from becoming smokers and help smokers quit.

The recommendations, backed by health charities and medical organisations, also include a “polluter pays” amendment to the health and social care bill to secure funding for a tobacco control programme, forcing manufacturers to pay to deliver the end of smoking. The cross-party group of MPs and peers has warned the government that it can only build back “better and fairer” from the coronavirus pandemic by making smoking obsolete and must commit now to the actions needed to secure its vision of a Smokefree 2030.

The report notes that more people are likely to have died last year and this year from smoking than COVID-19. It also calls for targeted investment to provide additional support to help smokers quit in regions and communities where smoking does the most damage, including those in routine and manual jobs, unemployed, living in social housing, or who have a mental health condition or are pregnant. The report suggests widespread public support for the recommendations, with more than three quarters (76%) of the public supporting the Government’s Smokefree 2030 ambition. Some 77% support making tobacco manufacturers pay a levy to the government for measures to help smokers quit and prevent young people from taking up smoking, while 63% support increasing the age of sale from 18 to 21.

The APPG committee chairman, Bob Blackman, said: “Our report sets out measures which will put us on track to achieve the government’s ambition to end smoking by 2030, but they can’t be delivered without funding. Tobacco manufacturers make extreme profits selling highly addictive, lethal products, while government coffers are bare because of Covid-19. The manufacturers have the money, they should be made to pay to end the epidemic.”

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: “We all applauded when the government announced its ambition for a smokefree 2030. But that was two years ago, the time has now come to deliver. Currently, smoking rates are not declining nearly fast enough. If, as called for by the APPG, the recommendations in its report are implemented by 2022 we can get on track to make smoking obsolete by 2030.”

Source: The Guardian, 9 June 2021

See also: APPG on Smoking and Health press release - Parliamentarians call on Government to end the tobacco epidemic by 2030 ([link removed])

Report - Delivering a Smokefree 2030: The All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health recommendations for the Tobacco Control Plan 2021. ([link removed])

Mirror - MPs call for ban on cigarette sales to under-21s in bid to end 'tobacco epidemic' ([link removed])

The Telegraph - Stub out the sale of cigarettes to under-21s, say MPs ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )


**
------------------------------------------------------------


** Peter Kellner, a former president of YouGov and a former trustee of ASH, has written a blog piece discussing the widespread public support for government action to end the tobacco epidemic.

He highlights the latest YouGov survey of 10,000 people in England for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), showing that the public wants ministers to go further to tackle smoking. He points out that since 2010 the numbers of people saying the government is doing too much have fallen from 21% to 5%, while those saying “not enough” have risen from 32% to 45%. Added to the 35% who think the government is getting it about right, means 80% of people want to maintain the current strategy or go further.

Kellner also recalls the transformation in the views of smokers. In 2010, 51% of smokers said the government was doing too much; only 9% said: “not enough”. However, this years survey revealed it is now 19% and 23% respectively. He highlights that there is cross-party support as Conservative voters are as keen as the general population on the government’s overall strategy to end smoking by 2030. He also points out that the public support a range of tobacco control measures, including banning all smoking in cars, increasing taxes on cigarettes, making tobacco manufacturers pay a levy to the government to help smokers quit, and raise the age of sale from 18 to 21.

Kellner concludes by saying, “Taken together, these results suggest two conclusions. There are no signs that voters are saying thus far but no further, and more smokers these days seem to be saying help us quit than leave us alone. Together with the views of Conservative voters, these results suggest that ministers have little to fear politically from doing what they believe to be right.”

Source: Kellner Politics, 9 June 2021
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Blog ([link removed])


**
------------------------------------------------------------


** North East campaigners are calling for tough new measures to end smoking as new figures reveal that 113,000 people in the region have been killed by tobacco since the year 2000.

Today (9th June), the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on smoking and health, as well as a Northeast doctor and an ex-cancer patient from South Shields, will be calling on the government to include a set of tough new measures in its forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan. The APPG on smoking and health believes these measures are essential if the ambition for England to be smokefree by 2030 is to be achieved. The recommendations are part of a report being launched at a virtual round table attended by the Public Health Minister, Jo Churchill MP.

The report’s recommendations will be the subject of a backbench debate led by Bob Blackman MP and City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy in parliament at 1.30 pm on Thursday, 10th June.
The report comes after the Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty recently warned that more people are likely to die from smoking this year than COVID -19. Professor Witty said the deaths occurred because “a small number of companies make profits from the people that have become addicted in young ages and then keep addicted to something which they know will kill them.”

The APPG warns the government that until it delivers a smokefree future for all, the levelling up of poorer regions, including the North East, cannot be achieved. The report calls for legislation forcing tobacco companies to pay for the measures needed to end smoking, secured through a ‘polluter pays’ amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill. The APPG report is backed by Fresh and other partners across the region, who are united to make smoking history for more families and build on the success from the last two decades of focussed work to reduce smoking rates and the resultant burden of harm.

Ailsa Rutter, director of Fresh and Balance, said: “… The last year has put into sharp focus the importance of health, and the report from the APPG on Smoking provides good evidence for what the government must do to ‘make smoking obsolete’ as they said was their ambition back in July 2019. We know here in the North East we have high levels of public support for important measures like making tobacco manufacturers pay a levy to [the] government for measures to help smokers quit and prevent young people from taking up smoking, and raising the age of sale to 21.”

Mary Foy MP, the vice-chair of the APPG on Smoking and Health, said: “I’m an MP from the North East, the poorest region in the country where smoking rates have historically been high. That’s why, although we’ve made good progress in recent years, we still suffer disproportionately from disease, disability and death caused by smoking. The APPG report recommendations will sever the ‘iron chain’ linking smoking and disadvantage. They are essential if we are to build back fairer and level up communities like my own.”

Source: The Northern Echo, 9 June 2021
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])


**
------------------------------------------------------------


** Mary Foy MP, the vice-chair of the APPG on Smoking and Health, appeared on BBC Radio 4 to discuss the APPG’s new report which calls on the government to end the tobacco epidemic in order to level up the nation. The report sets out 12 recommendations for the next Tobacco Control Plan to deliver a Smokefree 2030, including the need to make tobacco manufacturers pay for a Smokefree 2030 Fund and consult on raising the age of sale for tobacco from 18 to 21.

You can listen from 53:16 to 57:07. Available for 29 days.

Source: BBC Radio 4, 9 June 2021
------------------------------------------------------------
Listen Here ([link removed] )


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


**
------------------------------------------------------------


**
New research reveals some people increased their smoking to help them cope during the pandemic, while others tried to quit to potentially lessen their vulnerability to COVID-19.

The study authors analysed survey responses from 694 current and former daily smokers - the average age was 53 years, 40% were male, and 78% were white. The study participants had been hospitalised before the COVID-19 pandemic and had previously participated in a smoking cessation clinical trial at hospitals in Boston, Nashville and Pittsburgh. The survey was administered from May to July 2020.

Findings show that about 68% of respondents believed that smoking increases the risk of contracting COVID-19 or having a more severe case. This perceived risk was higher in Massachusetts (where COVID-19 had already surged) than in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Higher perceived COVID-19 risk was associated with a higher interest in quitting smoking.

During the pandemic, 32% of respondents increased their smoking, 37% decreased their smoking, and 31% made no change. Those who increased their smoking tended to perceive more stress. Also, 11% of respondents who smoked in January 2020 (before the pandemic) had quit smoking by the time the survey was administered (an average of six months later), while 28% of former smokers relapsed. Higher perceived COVID-19 risk was associated with a higher likelihood of quitting and a lower likelihood of relapse.

Nancy Rigotti, the lead author of the study, said: “Even before the pandemic, tobacco smoking was the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. COVID-19 has given smokers yet another good reason to stop smoking. Physicians, health care systems and public health agencies have an opportunity to educate smokers about their special vulnerability to COVID-19 and urge them to use this time to quit smoking for good.”

Source: Medical Xpress, 8 June 2021

See also: Springer - Cigarette Smoking and Risk Perceptions During the COVID-19 Pandemic Reported by Recently Hospitalized Participants in a Smoking Cessation Trial ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here. ([link removed])

For more information email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk ([link removed])

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.

============================================================
Our mailing address is:
Action on Smoking and Health
Unit 2.9, The Foundry
17 Oval Way
London
SE11 5RR

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])