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** 06 August 2021
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** UK
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** Raising legal age for buying cigarettes to 21 being looked at by UK health officials (#1)
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** For raising the age of sale - Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive ASH (#2)
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** Stores ''missed'' by tobacco firms in menthol ban buy-back (#3)
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** Half of smokers have considered quitting due to coronavirus pandemic, survey suggests (#4)
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** NHS drops from first to fourth among rich countries' healthcare systems (#5)
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** International
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** Belgian customs arrest 45, seize 28 million of counterfeit cigarettes (#6)
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** Link of the Week
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** NICE Consultation - Tobacco: Preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence (update) (#7)
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** ASH Ready Reckoner Survey (#8)
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** UK
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** Sources at the Department of Health have told the Mirror that central to new Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s strategy to make the UK smokefree by 2030 will be trying to reduce smoking in young people.

Policy experts have examined extra regulations for flavoured vaping products, restrictions on the advertising of flavoured vaping products, as well as increasing on the age of sale. Government sources however say that the Health Secretary remains sceptical about raising the age of sale but has not ruled it out.

An open letter signed by health groups such as ASH and medics last month warned that without bold action England was set to miss its target for cutting smoking. Since the Government's last plan to end smoking was announced two years ago, figures show that more than 200,000 children under the age of 16 in England have started smoking.

MP Mary Foy, Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, told the Mirror: "Raising the sale of tobacco to those aged 21 would be very, very welcome news because we know that generally adults don't take up smoking, it's children and young people who start and unfortunately get hooked often for life. Studies show most adults regret ever starting in the first place." The APPG has recommended raising the age of tobacco sales to 21 and urged ministers to consult with the public.


Source: Mirror, 6 August 2021

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


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** Deborah Arnott makes the case for increasing the age of sale for tobacco products.

Smoking is not an adult choice, it’s an addiction.

Nine out of 10 adult smokers were addicted before they were 20. Of every three young smokers, only one will quit before they die, and up to two-thirds will die prematurely from smoking. Raising the age of sale to 21 will reduce the number of 18-20-year old smokers by 30%.

Simon Clark, whose organisation, Forest, is funded by tobacco firms, says if you’re old enough to have sex at 16 or join the Army, you’re old enough to smoke. But he’s wrong. This isn’t about making it illegal to smoke, just making it harder for under-21s to start when they are most vulnerable to becoming addicted. It is justified and it is popular.

Source: Mirror, 6 August 2021
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** Better Retailing has learnt that many retailers are still sitting on hundreds of pounds worth of now-illicit cigarettes after being ‘’missed’’ by tobacco suppliers during the initial returns phase of the menthol ban.

Prior to the ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes from 20 May last year, tobacco companies Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Brands, British American Tobacco (BAT), and Philip Morris International (PMI) pledged to take back and credit retailers for any non-compliant stock remaining once the legislation came into force. However, six retailers across England reported to betterRetailing.com in August 2021 that they still have menthol cigarettes from PMI and BAT, with some holding stock with a combined value worth several hundreds of pounds.

One retailer, who asked not to be named, said they had tried contacting PMI to take back the illicit stock over the past year but PMI had not credited them back or contacted the retailer. The retailer added that a BAT rep had told them it was examining ways it could resolve the issues. Another retailer said they have never had a take back process conveyed to them whilst another said that BAT and PMI only communicated with them “at the very last minute”.


Source: Better Retailing, 5 August 2021
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New research from independent pharmacy chain Well Pharmacy has found that 49% of smokers had considered quitting smoking as a result of the pandemic but 60% admitted to still carrying on with their smoking.

The pharmacy group said 18% of smokers surveyed had cut down as they had heard of greater risks of more severe COVID-19 symptoms but 23% were unaware of possible risks. However, 22% admitted they were now smoking up to 20% more than before the pandemic began last year. 41% said their smoking had remained the same.


Source: Manchester Evening News, 5 August 2021
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The Commonwealth Fund’s latest analysis of the performance of 11 rich nations’ healthcare systems has found that the UK’s NHS has fallen from first to fourth on the ranking. Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia now each provide better care than the UK.

The Washington-based Commonwealth Fund blamed the NHS’s fall down the rankings on the delays that patients face in accessing care and treatment, lack of investment in the service, and poverty. The NHS had finished top of the rankings in the thinktank’s two previous reports in 2014 and 2017.

Eric Schneider, lead author of the Commonwealth Fund’s Mirror 2021 report, said the UK had scored lower marks compared with 2017 on three of the five domains its panel of experts used: access to care, care processes (which look at the co-ordination of treatment and how well patients are involved), and equity (the ability to obtain healthcare regardless of income).

Schneider highlighted time taken to access care in the UK as the key factor in its ranking, citing the 60% of adults in the UK who found it somewhat or very difficult to obtain after-hours care. The study also found that only 65% of Britons said that their regular doctor always or often answered a query on the day it was posed, down from 78% in 2017. While 57% in 2017 said that they saw a doctor or nurse on the same or next day the last time they sought care, that has fallen to 52% this year.

In addition, just 33% of patients said that they got counselling or treatment for mental health problems when they sought help from a specialist in psychological or psychiatric illness – a new indicator that the thinktank had not previously analysed. The NHS was the second worst performer of the 11 countries on that criterion, just ahead of France. The US had by far the worst-rated system amongst the 11 nations, despite spending the most on care.

Source: The Guardian, 5 August 2021

See also: The Guardian - US ranks last in healthcare among 11 wealthiest countries despite spending most ([link removed])
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** International
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Belgian customs officers arrested 45 people on Wednesday 4th August as part of the country's biggest operation into cigarette counterfeiting. More than 28 million cigarettes were seized during the raid with the inventory still being counted.

Officers conducted a pre-dawn raid on a sweatshop in an industrial area of Aartselaar, near the northern city of Antwerp. The men were housed in a dilapidated dormitory in the warehouse, working in shifts to dry tobacco and run it through rolling machines. A total of 45 people were arrested, most of whom were Ukrainian nationals, some of whom were already known for similar offences in other European states, the finance ministry said.

Florence Angelici, spokeswoman for the Belgian finance ministry, explained that the warehouse operated 24 hours a day with workers not leaving it in order to avoid giving any sign of suspicious activity to the neighbourhood. The workers would sleep, work, eat, shower on site, without going out for weeks, even months.

A total of four illegal production sites were discovered, as well as several sites used for logistics, grinding tobacco or storing cigarette paper, filters and glue. In addition to Aartselaar, workshops were also located in eastern, northern and western Belgium and providing easy access to the British, French and Dutch markets. A large stock of cigarettes was ready to leave for the UK, in imitation branded packs with UK health warnings.

More than 400 million illegal cigarettes were seized by Belgian customs last year and Belgian customs administrator general Kristian Vanderwaeren described the operation on Wednesday as the biggest ever conducted by his administration.


Source: Euro News, 4 August 2021
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** Link of the Week
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Today is the final day to respond to the NICE consultation on their draft guidance for preventing uptake, promoting quitting, and treating dependence. You can find the link below.
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View Consultation ([link removed])


**
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**
ASH is currently developing a simplified version of our Ready Reckoner tool ([link removed]) using published Annual Population Survey and Local Tobacco profile data where possible.

If you ever used the Ready Reckoner tool, we would welcome your feedback to know what specific areas of work/activities the Ready Reckoner is used for.
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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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