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** 23 September 2021
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** UK
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** HMRC and Trading Standards seize one million cigarettes in Wales (#1)
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** Almost two dozen Oldham children tried to quit smoking during pandemic (#2)
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** International
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** US: $3 million grant establishes center to combat racial inequities in lung cancer (#4)
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** Switzerland: Parliament rejects blanket ban on tobacco ads (#5)
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** UK
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Over one million illegal cigarettes have been seized in Wales so far this year. Raids carried out across the country also confiscated 3,000 pouches of illegal hand-rolling tobacco. The combined value of these items was estimated at over £280,000, money that Trading Standards said would have ended up in the hands of criminal gangs. The Welsh government said it was planning a campaign to encourage reporting of illegal tobacco.

Welsh Trading Standards teams have been working with Revenue & Customs as part of Operation CeCe, targeting illegal tobacco products. Helen Picton, chair of Trading Standards Wales, said: "The trade in illegal tobacco creates a cheap source for tobacco for children and young people. It also undermines all of the good work being done to stop people smoking and the illegal tobacco trade more often than not has strong links to criminal activity." Illegal tobacco products are sold at around half the price of legal products, around £5 for a packet of cigarettes or £8 for a 50g pouch of tobacco.

Suzanne Cass, chief executive of ASH Wales said: "For many children, buying their first pack of illegal cigarettes will be the start of a lifelong addiction that will destroy their health, lead them into poverty and eventually kill them. Stamping out this deadly trade is an essential part of reducing Wales' smoking prevalence which currently stands at 18% of the adult population and leads to more than 5,000 deaths every year."

Source: BBC, 22 September 2021
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Almost two dozen children in Oldham used an NHS service to try and quit smoking during the coronavirus pandemic, figures reveal. NHS Digital data shows 21 under-18s in Oldham set a date to quit using the NHS Stop Smoking Service between April last year and March. At follow-up meetings held a month later, five said they had given up.

The previous year, four smokers under the age of 18 successfully quit, out of 19 who set a target date. Of the 1,700 child smokers looking to kick the habit across England last year, 45% reported quitting. Though up from 41% the previous year, it was still the lowest success rate of any category, and well behind the 61% of people aged 60 and over who achieved the same.

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** Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of ASH, said: "Recent research highlighted that younger people appear to have been taking up or going back to smoking in larger numbers. It appears likely that for younger people the stress of lockdown has led to more smoking while for older smokers health fears have prompted more quitting. Overall, people have been quitting with greater success in the pandemic." Nationally, the self-reported quit rate rose from 51% to 59% over this period, though success varied significantly between 82% in North East Lincolnshire and just 21% in Harrow.

Jon Foster, senior policy officer at Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, said: "If the government is serious about reaching its own ambition for a smoke-free England by 2030, then they need to reverse the 50% cuts that local stop smoking services have seen over the past few years. The government should implement a smoke-free fund, using profits from tobacco companies to pay for measures to prevent people from starting to smoke, and to support those who do to quit."
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Source: The Oldham Times, 23 September 2021
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** International
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The National Cancer Institute announced that Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center and City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center secured a highly competitive Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant that aims to address lung cancer racial disparities through precision medicine, targeted smoking cessation programs and community outreach.

The approximately $3 million grant will establish the Translational Research Center in Lung Cancer Disparities – TRACER for short – based at VCU Massey, in partnership with MUSC Hollings and City of Hope. TRACER will also engage a host of community groups, including local health departments, community health centers, marginalized populations, civic activists, educational institutions, faith-based groups and cancer survivors.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the US, accounting for more deaths than breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. Although the racial gap in lung cancer cases appears to be closing, likely due to the success of anti-smoking campaigns, Black men still have a higher risk of developing lung cancer compared to white men, even though they tend to smoke less. Black patients are also more likely than white patients to be diagnosed at later stages and to receive no treatment at all for their cancer. TRACER will attempt to understand and address these disparities through a number of targeted projects.

Source: Scien Mag, 22 September 2021
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** The Swiss parliament has agreed new advertising and sponsorship regulations for tobacco products. However, supporters of a total ban on tobacco advertising were left disappointed. Posters advertising of tobacco products and e-cigarettes that can be seen from public places, as well as advertising in cinemas, on public transport, in buildings and on sports fields, will be banned. Sponsorship is to be prohibited for events in Switzerland if they have an international character or are aimed at an underage audience. However, the House of Representatives in Switzerland also argued against excessive regulation of legal products. As a result, tobacco advertising in the press and on the internet will not be banned in principle. The ban will only apply to print media and websites “intended for minors”.

Interior Minister Alain Berset expressed his disappointment at the end of the parliamentary debate on Wednesday, saying the bill was “not much progress”, pointing out that the requirements for ratification of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control had not been met. The public will have the final say, with a vote expected to take place next year calling for a total advertising ban of tobacco products. The government is calling on voters to reject the initiative, which it says goes too far.

Responding to Wednesday's decision, the organisers of a people’s initiative campaign said that the politicians were just “going through the motions”. Currently tobacco advertising is not allowed on radio and television. The people's initiative campaigners want an absolute advertising ban in print media, online, posters, in cinemas and shops in addition to banning sponsorship by tobacco companies.
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Source: Swiss Info, 22 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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