View this email in your browser ([link removed])
** 15 October 2021
------------------------------------------------------------
** UK
------------------------------------------------------------
** Austerity in England linked to more than 50,000 extra deaths in five years (#1)
------------------------------------------------------------
** GPs warn face-to-face appointments plan could lead to exodus of doctors (#2)
------------------------------------------------------------
** More than 5million illegal cigarettes seized across England and Wales (#3)
------------------------------------------------------------
** Woman fined for dropping cigarette outside Nationwide in London (#4)
------------------------------------------------------------
** International
------------------------------------------------------------
** US: African Americans bear the brunt of negative health outcomes of menthol cigarettes (#5)
------------------------------------------------------------
** Link of the Week
------------------------------------------------------------
** LGBT Foundation network for stop smoking support (#6)
------------------------------------------------------------
** UK
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** According to a new study, austerity cuts to the NHS, public health and social care have killed tens of thousands of more people in England than expected.
Researchers from the University of York who analysed the joint impact of cuts to healthcare, public health, and social care since 2010 found that real social care spending rose by 2.2% per capita of the population between 2001-02 and 2009-10 but fell by 1.57% between 2010-11 and 2014-15. The loss of social care funding caused 23,662 additional deaths. In addition, real healthcare spend per capita rose by 3.82% between 2001-02 and 2009-10, but only by 0.41% between 2010-11 and 2014-15. The researchers calculated that the cuts to healthcare spending between 2010-11 and 2014-15 led to 33,888 extra deaths.
In total, the study suggested the constraints on health and social care spending during this period of austerity have been associated with 57,550 more deaths up to 2014 than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-2010 levels. The researchers also found a slowdown in life expectancy improvement coincided with the government’s sharp cuts to health and social care funding after David Cameron came to power a decade ago.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, described the findings as shocking and said they were proof that the government’s austerity drive had deepened health inequalities across the country. David Finch, assistant director of healthy lives at the Health Foundation, said the study showed why ministers must now put health at the “front and centre” of their levelling-up agenda.
Source: The Guardian, 14 October 2021
See also: The causal impact of social care, public health and healthcare expenditure on mortality in England : cross-sectional evidence for 2013/14 ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** GP leaders have warned that giving patients guaranteed face-to-face appointments could lead to a crippling exodus of family doctors already exhausted by the coronavirus pandemic and despairing of being “pilloried” by ministers. The profession’s key bodies said the government’s plan to force them to see in person every patient who asks will exacerbate the already serious shortage of doctors, especially as the proposal includes “naming and shaming” surgeries that do not comply.
Prof Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), condemned ministers for implying that family doctors are lazy, despite working long hours and dealing with increasingly heavy and complex workloads. He also accused ministers of spreading dangerous myths that telephone or video appointments are inferior to in-person interactions.
The British Medical Association said Javid’s failure to push through major changes it suggested to reduce GPs’ workloads “will force many GPs to hang up their stethoscopes and leave the profession for the last time.” Official workforce figures published by NHS Digital show that the number of full-time equivalent GPs in England has fallen from 29,403 in September 2015 to 28,023 – a fall of 1,380. However, the overall number of family doctors has risen over that same period from 36,120 to 38,792.
Source: The Guardian, 14 October 2021
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** More than five million illegal cigarettes have been seized from local retail outlets in the first six months of this year. The haul of illicit products also included more than 1,700kg of hand-rolled tobacco and 66kg of shisha.
In total, more than £2.7 million worth of illegal tobacco products have been taken off streets across England and Wales since Operation CeCe, the first joint initiative between National Trading Standards and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), launched in January.
Operation CeCe is part of a wider Government strategy to disrupt the illegal tobacco market from frontline retailers to global organised crime groups. Simon York, director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “Operation CeCe shows our determination to tackle the menace of illicit tobacco.”
Source: Staffordshire Live, 15 October 2021
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed] )
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** A woman from Saddleworth was fined hundreds of pounds for dropping a cigarette outside a Nationwide store in London on March 16. She was sentenced at Ealing Magistrates' Court on Monday (October 10), where the magistrates fined her £220. She was also fined £200 and a £34 penalty for court expenses. She has until November 8 to pay the total of £454.
Source: The Oldham Times, 14 October 2021
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])
** International
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** According to a new study, African Americans accounted for 41% of all menthol-related premature deaths in the United States between 1980 and 2018. The researchers believe this is the first study to quantify the impact menthol cigarettes have had in Black communities across the country.
Findings from the study show that menthol cigarettes were responsible for 1.5 million new smokers,157,000 smoking-related premature deaths and 1.5 million life-years lost among African Americans between 1980 and 2018. Relative to the general population, these figures represent, respectively, 15%, 41% and 50% of the total damage caused by menthol cigarettes during that period, despite African Americans constituting only 12% of the total US population.
Thuy Le, the study co-author, said: “Menthol cigarettes are an important contributor to health disparities in this country and removing menthol cigarettes from the market will save thousands of lives, particularly among African Americans.”
Source: Medical Xpress, 14 October 2021
See also: BMJ Journals - Consequences of a match made in hell: the harm caused by menthol smoking to the African American population over 1980–2018 ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])
** Link of the Week
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** LGBT Foundation is launching an online stop smoking support network for the LGBTQIA+ community this Stoptober. These sessions, commencing virtually from Tuesday 19 October at 7 pm, will offer a safe space to share stories about your quit journey and share support with others across the network and share your personal tips.
Whether you have quit smoking, you are planning to quit, or even thinking about it, you are welcome to join. The event is for ages 18+, and it is not a clinically-led session. It is not intended to provide medical support, access to any stop smoking aids, or expert stop smoking advice.
------------------------------------------------------------
Register Here ([link removed])
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here. ([link removed])
For more information email
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]) or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk ([link removed])
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.
============================================================
Our mailing address is:
Action on Smoking and Health
Unit 2.9, The Foundry
17 Oval Way
London
SE11 5RR
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
