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** 16 June 2021
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** UK
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** Majority of the public support total ban on UK gambling adverts, poll finds (#1)
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** Boris Johnson welcomes independent report on re-imagining regulation in the UK (#2)
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** Fears that local government is “sinking backwards” on devolution (#3)
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** International
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** US Study: Varenicline may help heavy-drinking smokers improve their health (#4)
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** US: Wake County public school considers suing Juul for marketing e-cigarettes to children (#5)
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** UK
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**
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** Most of the public support a total ban on gambling adverts, while three-quarters think restrictions should be tighter than they are now, a nationwide poll has found. Citing the survey of more than 12,000 people, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) urged the government to use its review of gambling regulation to forcibly reduce the number of ads the industry places on TV, radio and online.

The YouGov survey found that 77% of adults support a ban on gambling ads on radio and TV before 9 pm, with a similar number favouring the same curbs applying to social media and online too. The research, part of a wider survey on public health by tobacco control organisation ASH, found little opposition to a total ban on all gambling ads regardless of time or medium. Only 14% of adults and children opposed a total ban.

A gambling advertising watershed would fall in line with recent announcements by the government that adverts for junk food will be banned in broadcast media and online before 9 pm.

RSPH chief executive, Christina Marriott, said: “Given the harm that gambling can inflict on individuals, families, workplaces and communities, we need to take a stronger stand against it being embedded into our social and cultural lives. We no longer allow airtime to other products which harm our health, like tobacco products; gambling should be no different.”

Labour MP Carolyn Harris, who chairs a cross-party group examining gambling harm, said there was “strong public and parliamentary support” for a ban.

Source: The Guardian, 16 June 2021
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**
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** Boris Johnson says that a path through the “thicket of burdensome and restrictive regulation” must be cleared to fulfil the potentials of Brexit. The Prime Minister welcomed a report from a task force of senior Conservative MPs setting out their ideas for taking advantage of being outside the European Union’s regulations. They called for “reform” of the Northern Ireland Protocol, saying it “limits the scope” for enacting their suggestions to reduce bureaucracy while maintaining standards.

Mr Johnson pledged to give the “detailed consideration it deserves” to the document from the task force led by a former Conservative leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith. The Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR) set out more than 100 recommendations, including covering a new regulatory framework and reforms for high-growth sectors.

In a letter to the task force, the Prime Minister thanked them for the “substantive plans that will really put a TIGRR in the tank of British business.”

“It is obvious that the UK’s innovators and entrepreneurs can lead the world in the economy of the future, creating new opportunities and greater prosperity along the way, and levelling up our whole country in the process,” he wrote.

“But your report makes it equally clear that, whether in data reform or clinical trials, offshore wind or autonomous vehicles, this can only happen if we clear a path through the thicket of burdensome and restrictive regulation that has grown up around our industries over the past half-century.”

TIGRR proposals include replacing General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with a UK Data Protections Framework. They further recommend allowing pension schemes to invest in start-ups and building a new UK clinical trials network building on the success of the coronavirus vaccine development.

Source: Daily Mail, 16 June 2021

See also: TIGRR report ([link removed]) – there is no mention of tobacco control and public health specifically.
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**
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** With the government’s devolution and recovery white paper having been ditched in favour of a new levelling up paper drawn up from Downing Street, the Local Government Association (LGA) has decided to shift its lobbying approach. From now on, it will focus on showcasing “local government’s ability to deliver effectively and at pace and to make a real difference in people’s lives.”

This is likely to mean “less media and lobbying activity presenting devolution as desirable in and of itself” and a “greater focus on the better outcomes that might be secured through stronger local control.”

However, LGA chair James Jamieson told its executive board last Thursday that he will “continue to press for devolution”. Referring to how care needs can be better addressed by ensuring the right accommodation is in place, he raised concerns about how government departments “often look at solving a problem within a department” when the solution is “frequently across departments”. He added that “if you devolve, you look at…solutions across your place, and not as a series of pillars from Whitehall.”

Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese referred to the structure of the precursor to the UK shared prosperity fund - the £220 million community renewal fund - with its “bidding processes and centralised decision making” - as well as recently announced employment and skills and education programs that are steered from the centre, as evidence that “if anything, we’re going backwards at the moment” on devolution.

He criticised the £4 billion levelling up fund, which MPs have involvement in, as appearing to be “obsessed with parliamentary constituencies rather than communities and local government”. “None of this is the direction which I think we ought to be or to be going in,” he added.

Councillor Leese suggested that over the next 12 months, the LGA should consider “how we really reenergise to give priority to our devolution arguments, and perhaps to try and look at new approaches to them - because the evidence at the moment is that if anything, we are sinking backwards rather than going forwards.”

Source: Local Government Chronicle, 15 June 2021

See also: LGA - City Regions Board Agenda ([link removed])
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** International
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**
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** A recent University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) clinical trial has shown encouraging results in helping daily smokers who are also heavy drinkers quit smoking and cut down their alcohol intake.

The study of 165 people tested two prescription drugs - varenicline for smoking addiction and naltrexone-used to treat alcoholism. Participants, who ranged in age from 21 to 65, smoked at least five cigarettes a day, with male participants generally consuming more than 14 drinks a week and women more than seven per week. Over the 12-week study period, each participant received 2 milligrams of varenicline twice a day. Roughly half the group - 83 participants - also received a 50-milligram dose of naltrexone daily, while the other 82 received placebo pills. They were all told to quit smoking and drink less.

When researchers followed up 26 weeks after the study’s conclusion, they found that nearly 36% - 59 participants - had quit smoking. The researchers said those who had received varenicline plus placebo had a significantly higher smoking quit rate (45%) than those who were given varenicline and naltrexone (27%). Participants who received varenicline plus naltrexone had a lower smoking quit rate, but they had slightly better success than the placebo group at curbing their drinking.

Lara Ray, the study author, said: “There is evidence that varenicline can help them with both. Varenicline appears quite effective at reducing drinking and helping people to quit smoking. Given that varenicline has been found to reduce drinking in trials for alcohol use disorder, it is possible that its effects on both drinking and smoking present an optimal alternative for this group of heavy-drinking smokers.”

Source: Medical Xpress, 15 June 2021

See also: American Journal of Psychiatry - Efficacy of Combining Varenicline and Naltrexone for Smoking Cessation and Drinking Reduction: A Randomized Clinical Trial ([link removed])
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**
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** Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) in North Carolina could decide to file a lawsuit against e-cigarette maker Juul in July.

Juul is cited for marketing its products toward young consumers by using fruit and dessert flavoured nicotine. A national study recently showed that 41% of high school students had tried vaping, with many of those being enticed by the special flavoured options.

More than 100 school districts across the country have already filed similar lawsuits against Juul.

Source: ABC 11, 16 June 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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