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** 02 September 2021
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** UK
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** The tobacco companies that say they want to stop people smoking cigarettes (#1)
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** Blog: The idea that a tobacco company might profit off my disease appals me (#2)
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** Warning over cuts to NHS services without £10 billion extra funding (#3)
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** All ICS CEO jobs put out to advert at up to £270,000 (#4)
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** International
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** Israeli researchers say toddler nicotine tests could curb parents’ smoking (#5)
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** French expert criticises cigarette price reduction (#6)
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** UK
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**
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** The tobacco firm Philip Morris International (PMI), which has made billions from selling addicts cancer-causing products, said earlier in the summer that it would welcome a government ban on cigarettes. PMI insisted “strong regulation” was required to “help solve the problem of cigarette smoking once and for all.” The firm behind the Marlboro brand now not only has a mission to “unsmoke the world”, it also says it is morphing into a “healthcare and wellness company”.

PMI has been attempting a £1.1billion takeover of Vectura, a company that, among other things, develops inhalers to treat lung diseases. Critics say this transformation is, in large part, smoke and mirrors. As PMI, and the industry at large, trumpets to advanced nations its pivot towards less toxic alternatives – such as vaping devices – the company still generates three-quarters of its revenue from cigarettes. It is also responsible for selling more than a tenth of cigarettes globally.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the “tobacco epidemic” remains “one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.” According to ASH, almost one in 10 UK women still smokes during pregnancy though this is its lowest since records began.

In May, England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said that with smoking-related diseases killing about 90,000 people each year, more Britons probably died from tobacco than Covid in 2020. He said: “The reason that people like me get very concerned and upset about this cancer is it is almost entirely caused for profit. The great majority of people who die of this cancer die so that a small number of companies make profits from the people that have become addicted at young ages and then keep addicted to something which they know will kill them.”

An open letter to shareholders, organised by Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, said the takeover created a “moral conflict,” adding: “Tobacco companies should not profit from treating the illnesses their products cause.”

Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive at ASH, says cigarette companies are subject to a unique global regulatory system because of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). She says: “This treaty has a specific part in it which talks about protecting health policy from the commercial vested interests of the tobacco industry. The chair of ASH is a respiratory consultant, and he and colleagues at the European Respiratory Society have been talking about which [respiratory] products they would prescribe, were Vectura to be bought, and the profits of those products would therefore go to support a tobacco company. I think the implications for Vectura as a business are quite significant.”

Regardless of the cigarette makers commitments, the Government has a stated ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030. However, this means reaching 5% average adult smoking prevalence (in Scotland, the target is 2034, while there is not yet one in Wales and Northern Ireland).

Cheeseman warns that affluent parts of the country could reach that goal a decade before poorer areas. She says the target is “absolutely doable in the next decade”, but only with extra funding and by ensuring universal access to support for smokers to quit.

She went on to say: “Clearly money is a challenge for governments all over the world right now, but money is obviously not a problem for tobacco companies – they are among the richest sectors in the world. They’ve profited from the fact that they have a highly addictive product for decades and decades, and if we’re going to see tobacco smoking end in the next decade, then we need the money out of these companies to realise that ambition.”

Source: iNews, 2 September 2021
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** Alizee Froguel, a policy manager at Cancer Research UK, discusses how tobacco companies continue to profit from diseases such as asthma and COPD, which are far more prevalent because of their products.

She highlights PMI’s acquisition of Vectura, a British company that specialises in medicines and devices to treat COPD and asthma, stating: “As someone who not only struggles with severe asthma but who also works to reduce the burden caused by smoking, the idea that a tobacco company might now profit off my disease appals me.”

Alizee notes that tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable cancer and death in the UK, as well as a major driver of health disparities between the richest and poorest in England. She argues that PMI’s promise to stop selling cigarettes in the UK by 2030 “reeks of hypocrisy given their continued drive to push these products in lower- and middle-income countries around the world.”

Alizee says that rather the tobacco industry should pay for the damages they have incurred over the years, arguing that the UK needs bold and ambitious tobacco control policies to reduce the uptake of tobacco and ensure that people who smoke are motivated and effectively supported to quit.

Alizee states that years of financial cuts to public health budgets have harmed tobacco control in the UK, jeopardising the country's potential to make smoking obsolete. She urges the government to establish a dedicated tobacco control fund in the upcoming Autumn Spending Review, which would help to pay for tobacco control measures across the UK.

Source: Cancer Research UK, 1 September 2021
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** Services may have to be cut unless NHS England receives an extra £10 billion in funding next year, groups representing the health service have warned. The NHS Confederation and NHS Providers said the money was needed to cover pandemic-related costs and reduce the backlog in operations and treatments. They warned that patients could be put at risk without more funding.

The organisations are concerned a three-year government spending review for England, some of which could be announced next week, will fall well short of what the NHS needs.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the government “must fully recognise the extent, length and cost of the impact of COVID-19 on the NHS.”

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said trust leaders were worried that without the extra funding, “they won’t be able to provide prompt, high quality, safe care to all who need it”. In a joint statement, the two leaders said that “health outcomes for millions of patients” in the next three years are dependent on the “crucial” spending review decision. Patients genuinely are at peril,” they added.

A government statement said: “We are committed to making sure the NHS has everything it needs to continue providing excellent care to the public as we tackle the backlogs that have built up during the pandemic. This year alone, we have already provided a further £29 billion to support health and care services, including an extra £1 billion to tackle the backlog. This is on top of our historic settlement for the NHS in 2018, which will see its budget rise by £33.9 billion by 2023-24.”

Source: BBC News, 2 September 2021
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** NHS England has begun recruitment for chief executives for all Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), even though many have an existing executive lead in place.

Salaries are advertised at up to £270,000 for the largest ICS. Information published yesterday by NHSE said: “As the current ICS executive lead roles are different to the new ICS CEO roles we are advertising all 42 roles… All ICSs will see a robust selection process to appoint a CEO into a full-time role that covers just one ICS.”

NHS England and NHS Improvement will run the recruitment, although the appointment will be made “formally” by an ICS’ integrated care board chair when they are made statutory in April as planned under the Health and Care Bill.

The advertised salaries range from “up to £270,000” for ICSs including Greater Manchester, North West London and Sussex; up to £240,000 for ICSs including Kent and Medway, Birmingham and Solihull and Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West; and down to £197,500 for others, including Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, and Frimley. The salary appears to generally reflect the size of the ICS’ population, with some exceptions.

Source: HSJ, 1 September 2021
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** International
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**

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** A study carried out by researchers at Tel Aviv University has found that 7 out of 10 children from smoking households had nicotine in their bloodstream, showing repeated exposure to secondhand smoke. While the study found heightened nicotine levels for most children of smokers, it also found that just testing the children for nicotine exposure, without even informing families of the results, was enough to seemingly change parents’ behaviours.

The researchers found that nicotine levels in children dropped for both the intervention group, in which parents received results and comprehensive training on keeping kids smokefree, and for the control group, in which the parents were not offered the test results and training until after the study concluded.

The researchers say that testing preschool-age children for nicotine exposure could help modify their parents’ smoking behaviour. “If children are tested at a young age for nicotine, results could shape parents’ behaviour,” Professor Laura Rosen, who led the 140-family study, told The Times of Israel. “Results showing that a child has nicotine in their body could make parents think once, twice and probably 20 times before smoking around their kids, whether in the house or on the porch.”

Source: Times of Israel, 1 September 2021

See also: Nicotine and Tobacco Research - Protecting Children From Tobacco Smoke Exposure: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Project Zero Exposure ([link removed])
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** Yesterday, 1st September, the price of some cigarettes in France dropped by 1%, a move described by lung specialist Professor Bertrand Dautzenberg, as the result of a tobacco industry marketing effort from an industry that kills half of its consumers.

The professor admits that the price change is purely symbolic since some brands have seen their prices increase. The new price structure targets brands popular amongst the young.

Tobacco was a vast sector before the beginning of anti-cancer campaigns, with 84 billion cigarettes sold. That number is now down to 32 or 33 billion. One French person in four is a regular smoker, but the number has recently begun to increase.

Professor Dautzenberg attributes this reversal of a long-established trend to coronavirus restrictions which prevented people from crossing the border into Belgium to buy cheaper cigarettes. So, demand at French tobacco outlets increased by 15% in some sales points close to the north-eastern border.

But it is over for the tobacco industry anyway predicts Dautzenberg. “The end of the cigarette era is approaching. That is why they are fighting back.”

Source: Yahoo News, 1 September 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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