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** 04 August 2021
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** UK
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** Yorkshire and the Humber: Tobacco detection dog helps sniff out 1.3 million illicit cigarettes in Leeds (#1)
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** International
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** Republic of Ireland: MP sought a ban on combi-boxes at the behest of tobacco lobbyist (#2)
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** Smoking cessation treatment for patients with depression could save lives (#3)
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** Poland dismantles illicit tobacco factory, arrests 16 (#4)
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** UK
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** A tobacco detection dog helped sniff out more than 1.3 million illicit cigarettes. HMRC officers and a UK Border Force tobacco detection dog visited a self-storage site in Leeds on 29 July.
Officers discovered 1,369,960 cigarettes, worth an estimated £565,793 in unpaid duty, inside two units at the site.
Eden Noblett, assistant director of Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: “Cheap cigarettes come at a cost as they often fund organised crime and other illegal activity that causes real harm to our communities, such as drugs, guns and human trafficking.”
Source: Yorkshire Evening Post, 2 August 2021
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** International
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** A Fine Gael member of parliament wrote to the health minister requesting that the sale of rolling tobacco pouches, including papers and filters, should be banned after being lobbied on behalf of a cigarette company.
Bernard Durkan, a member of the Oireachtas health committee, yesterday (3rd August) claimed that he was not aware that the lobbyists who had contacted him represented a tobacco company. The lobbying register states that GME Media, on behalf of John Player – part of Imperial Tobacco Group, engaged Durkan in the past three months. John Player was seeking an amendment to “prohibit the sale of rolling tobacco, papers and filters in one unit or pouch.”
Correspondence, seen by The Times, shows that Vincent Gribbin, a lobbyist for John Player, wrote to Durkan on 2nd July. Attached in the email was a draft letter to Stephen Donnelly, the health minister, outlining the reasons that the sale of rolling tobacco, papers, and filters in one pouch should be banned. The draft letter was written in the voice of Durkan and signed off with his name. HSE research was also cited in the letter, which said the proportion of Irish smokers rolling their cigarettes increased from 3.5% in 2003 to 24.6% in 2014.
When questioned by The Times about why he had sent a letter to the health minister, which lobbyists had written for a cigarette company, Durkan said: “I don’t recall any correspondence from John Player. I got correspondence from a person you say is a lobbyist. But I get correspondence from lobbyists all the time. On the basis of the information they raised, I raised questions about it.” He said he was not “aware of John Player” engaging with him. “The lobbyist didn’t ring me and say ‘I’m referring to John Player’.” He said he would have taken a “different approach” if he knew the lobbyists were working for John Player.
The Department of Health said: “The minister for health is not considering banning the sale of pouches containing tobacco, filters, and skins as part of the Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill.”
Source: The Times, 4 August 2021
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** A team of researchers estimates that providing patients with depression with the tools to quit smoking could save as many as 125,000 lives over the next 80 years.
Led by the Yale School of Public Health, the study underscores the potential benefits of smoking cessation in a population that suffers disproportionately from tobacco-related disease and death. It is also the first known study to estimate the population health effects of integrating smoking cessation treatments with standard mental health care.
The researchers used more than a decade of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to build their model. They then used the model to project the effectiveness of smoking cessation treatments into the future and assessed how the benefits varied based on different rates of treatment adoption over the next 80 years. Simulating the health benefits reveals that, at minimum, 32,000 deaths could be averted by 2100 if a significant number of patients with depression adopted any cessation treatment. With 100% mental health service utilisation and pharmacological cessation treatment, the number of potential lives saved rose to 203,000.
Jamie Tam, the study’s lead author, said: “Beyond reducing the risk of early death, smoking cessation improves [the] quality of life and increases productivity. Decision makers should remove barriers to mental health care and smoking cessation treatments for people with mental health conditions.”
Source: Medical Xpress, 3 August 2021
See also: AJPM - The potential impact of widespread cessation treatment for smokers with depression ([link removed](21)00278-6/fulltext)
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** Polish authorities have arrested 16 people suspected of being members of an organised crime group that produced illicit tobacco, intended to be sold in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Agents from Europol’s Analysis Project (AP) Smoke, which specialises in the production and the smuggling of illicit tobacco, were deployed to the Polish capital of Warsaw to help local law enforcement and coordinate with other countries. Over 100 Border Guard officers searched locations in and around the city. They seized over 1.6 million counterfeit cigarettes from an illegal factory - which could have been sold for €9.7 million - and 13 tonnes of tobacco.
Authorities estimated the factory’s production capacity at approximately one million cigarettes per day. The leader of the criminal organisation was among the arrested. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigations have revealed that the illicit tobacco trade generates billions on the black market every year. The industry is expected to cost the lives of one billion people this century.
Source: Bear and Lemon, 3 August 2021
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