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** 01 September 2021
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** UK
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** NHS Digital calls on schools to take part in Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use survey (#1)
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** International
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** US: FDA facing demands to snuff out Juul's e-cigarettes (#2)
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** Nigeria: Seven years after passing public smoking law, Lagos struggles with enforcement (#3)
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** Japan: Nomura tells staff not to smoke cigarettes whilst working from home (#4)
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** UK
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** NHS Digital is calling on secondary schools to participate in the 2021 Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among young people in England survey. The survey, designed for 11-15-year-olds, is used by the Government to monitor behaviours, inform policies and services, and to evaluate their impact. It is also used widely by Public Health England, NHS England, charities, and academic institutions.
Approximately 1000 schools are randomly selected across England for the survey and pupils undergo the questionnaire under exam conditions. The survey asks about pupils’ smoking, drinking and drug use behaviours and attitudes and is analysed in relation to a range of demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity, and geography. Gary Childs, Head of Delivery for Analytical Services at NHS Digital, says that this year’s survey is particularly interested in understanding the impact of the pandemic.
Source: Open Access Government, 31 August 2021
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** International
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** US health groups are calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban Juul’s flavoured e-cigarettes from the US market. The FDA has until September 9th 2021 to decide whether and under which conditions Juul may continue selling its flavoured e-cigarettes in the US.
The FDA review is part of the wider regulation of non-cigarette products currently underway in the US to ensure that they are “appropriate for the protection of public health”. This means that a product must be deemed more likely to help adults quit smoking cigarettes than to entice young people to start vaping and potentially go on to become addicted to nicotine.
Erika Sward, assistant vice president of national advocacy for the American Lung Association, says that “there will be an epic storm from Capitol Hill and the public health community” if the FDA does not ban Juul’s flavoured e-cigarettes. Health groups blame Juul for causing a rise in teen vaping between 2017 and 2019 and claim there is insufficient evidence that Juul vapes have helped adult smokers quit.
These groups say that Juul products are particularly harmful because their pods’ nicotine levels are too high. Juul’s menthol and tobacco flavoured pods come in nicotine concentrations by weight of 3% and 5%, with the 5% cartridge containing the nicotine equivalent of about one pack of cigarettes.
However, other public health advocates, such as Clifford E. Douglas, director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network, say that Juul’s products should be considered “on the scientific merits”. These tobacco control advocates argue that health organisations and the media have focused too much on the risks to young people and insufficiently considering potential benefits of them as cessation aids.
As Desmond Jenson, a senior staff attorney at the Public Health Law Center at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, puts it: “There is no way [the FDA] are going to make everyone happy.”
Source: Washington Post, 31 August 2021
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An investigation by the Premium Times has revealed that most public places in Nigeria’s capital Lagos are contravening smokefree law by not having designated smoking places. The investigation revealed that a number of academic institutions, secondary schools, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and religious centres in the Ikeja and Surulere districts of Lagos were not complying with the law.
Smoking is banned in all indoor public places in Nigeria such as libraries, museums, public toilets, schools, hospitals, day care centres, schools and public buses, restaurants, hotels, and stadia. Penalties for offenders range from N10,000 (£17.65) to N50,000 (£88.23). However, the Premium Times investigation showed that institutions were defying the law by not displaying the ‘’No Smoking’’ symbol at their entrances or by not having designated smoking areas as required.
Tosin Agunbiade, a prominent environmentalist in Nigeria, urged the Government to install CCTV in “strategic places” to strengthen the enforcement of the law and to safeguard lives and properties. He also called on the Government to educate people about the impact of smoking on the environment, health, and the possible sanctions for contravening smokefree laws.
Since August 2014, when the smokefree law came into effect in Lagos, there have been no reported cases of arrest or prosecution by the authorities for breaches. Akinbode Oluwafemi, a tobacco-control advocate, says the Lagos state government has not demonstrated any willingness to enforce the law.
Source: Premium Times, 01 September
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Japan’s biggest brokerage company Nomura Holdings Inc. has told its staff not to smoke during working hours, even if they are working from home. The company sent a memo to employees on Tuesday 31st August outlining the new policy which will come into effect in October 2021. The company will close all smoking rooms managed by the Nomura Group by the end of December 2021.
Spokesman Yoshitaka Otsu said that the rules will be based on mutual trust and will not include a punitive clause. The company does not plan to monitor whether employees working remotely are following the guidelines. Nomura says it is introducing the measures to create a favourable working environment, to prevent secondhand smoking, and to promote employee health.
According to a March poll by the National Cancer Center Japan, about two in 10 smokers said their cigarette consumption had increased as a result of working from or staying at home during the pandemic, partly because there are no smoking restrictions at home. Nomura is seeking to reduce the smoking rate among its employees in Japan to 12% by 2025, compared with 20% in March 2020.
The brokerage firm has been providing financial aid to help workers quit since 2017. Its latest policy also strongly recommends that people keep away from its offices for 45 minutes after smoking at lunchtime or breaks.
Source: The Japan Times, 01 September
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