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** 25 October 2021
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** UK
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** Tobacco giant is accused of lobbying over Vectura (#1)
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** No 10 stubs out officials’ plan to ban smoking on pavements outside pubs and restaurants (#2)
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** Ending smoking in the UK would increase the number of UK jobs by nearly half a million (#3)
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** NHS maternity services near breaking point, warns top doctor (#4)
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** Opinion: Formula One needs to quit its addiction to tobacco money (#5)
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** UK
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** Concerns have increased that Philip Morris International (PMI) will use its £1 billion takeover of Vectura to legitimise the tobacco industry’s participation in public health after its chief executive was accused of lobbying the government over the deal.

Jacek Olczak wrote to Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, on the day Philip Morris unveiled its surprise 165p-a-share cash offer for the respiratory drugs company in July, seeking a meeting to “talk more about our plans for PMI and Vectura’s operation in the UK.” Olczak also mentioned jobs in his letter to promote the takeover, saying that the “UK, where we have nearly 1,000 employees, is an important market for PMI, and this transaction underscores its ongoing attractiveness.”

The letter, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, has raised concerns among public health experts that Philip Morris will seek to undermine the World Health Organization’s framework convention on tobacco control, which aims to prohibit governments and other public bodies from engaging with the tobacco industry over health-related policy.

Chief executives of the anti-smoking charities Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Cancer Research UK wrote to Kwarteng in a separate letter on July 15, saying that “our concerns relate to efforts by PMI, in the UK and around the world, to subvert or prevent health legislation and policy designed to reduce the consumption of tobacco.” They added: “There is a real prospect that PMI will use this acquisition to legitimise tobacco industry participation in health debates within the UK. This must not be allowed to happen.”

Kwarteng sent a brief response to Olczak on July 26, writing that “while [the] government has no role in the strategic direction or management of private sector companies, the proposed transaction has raised concerns with various stakeholders, and my officials will be monitoring the situation.” No meeting or call is understood to have been held between the two.

Professor Nick Hopkinson, chairman of ASH, accused Philip Morris of a “sleazy attempt” to “breach the WHO’s framework convention on tobacco control.” Anna Gilmore, director of the tobacco control research group at the University of Bath, said: “PMI has wasted no time in using the Vectura deal as part of its ongoing attempts to undermine article 5.3 [of the convention] and secure access to government.”

A spokeswoman for the business department said: “While this is primarily a commercial matter for the parties concerned, the government continues to monitor the situation closely.”

Source: The Times, 25 October 2021

See also: Letter to The Times - Tobacco Takeover ([link removed])
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** Downing Street has quashed an attempt by Government advisers to ban the smoking of cigarettes on pavements outside pubs and restaurants. The idea was put forward by the Health Promotion Taskforce – but dismissed by Boris Johnson’s aides as “illiberal” and “nanny state.” The change would have been enacted through licensing regulations.

Smoking in enclosed public places was banned in England under Tony Blair in 2007, while Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had already done so over the previous 18 months. Under the new proposal, smoking would be allowed in pub gardens but not directly outside food and drink venues on public pavements. Supporters say the argument for such a ban has been strengthened by the growth in outdoor seating on pavements outside bars and restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic. People sitting close together should be protected from passive smoking, they say, and claim there is public support for such a ban.

However, the Government has been reluctant to make all such pavement seating no-smoking. Nonetheless, local councils have already started to enact the move. At least five English local authorities – Northumberland, Durham, Manchester, North Tyneside and Newcastle-upon-Tyne – have banned smoking on pavements outside pubs, restaurants and bars. Oxfordshire County Council also has plans to do so. But the task force wanted to instigate a blanket ban on smoking on pavements outside pubs and restaurants across England, as part of a wider drive to make England ‘smoke-free’ by 2030.

Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, is known to be particularly exercised by the issue. In May he told a conference held at Gresham College in London that smoking, which it is claimed results in 90,000 deaths a year, would probably kill more people in 2021 than Covid. He was ‘very upset’ about the numbers dying from lung cancer, a disease which he said was ‘caused almost entirely for profit’.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said the proposed changes “won’t damage business because it’s what the public wants, is simpler not more difficult for councils to enforce, and will make it easier for smokers who want to quit to succeed.”

Source: Daily Mail, 23 October 2021

See also: LBC Andrew Castle show - Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, appeared on the show to discuss the role that smokefree pavement licences can play in achieving a smokefree 2030, through helping smokers to quit and preventing harm caused by secondhand smoke. Listen here ([link removed]) : 02:39:40 – 02:45:00. (Available for 5 days).

ASH Press Release - House of Lords vote on smokefree pavement licences as councils hail local successes ([link removed])
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** New analysis of national statistics published in advance of the budget and spending review has found that there would be major benefits to the UK economy if all expenditure on tobacco ended. In summary:
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** UK smokers spend around £15.6 billion a year on legal and illicit tobacco
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** If all spending on tobacco ended and consumers switched to other goods and services: Gross value added (GVA) would increase between £13bn and £14bn. GVA is a measure of an economy’s health.
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** Between 460k and half a million more people would be employed in the UK, equivalent to 346k – 376k full-time jobs worth between £11.3bn and £12.4bn.
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** The net benefit to public finances would be £600 million because reductions in tax revenues (£7.5bn) are more than offset by the reduced cost to public finances from smoking-related ill-health and lower productivity (£8.1bn).
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** The analysis accounts for the jobs in the economy created by the tobacco industry and then used national spending surveys to estimate what goods and services people would switch their spending to if they didn’t buy tobacco. As other goods and services contribute on average far more in terms of job creation than tobacco does, the net effect of people switching their spending is significant and positive. In addition, other research indicates that smoking is currently a drain on UK productivity, resulting in around £14.1bn in lost income.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which commissioned the analysis, said, “Half a million additional jobs would make a significant contribution to levelling up, with the added bonus of a net benefit to public finances of £600 million. However, it depends on the government delivering on its commitment to make smoking obsolete by 2030, and that’s nowhere near a done deal. To get on track, we need the spending review to deliver significant extra funding for public health so the forthcoming tobacco control plan can be well funded and ambitious. With all the pressures on the public purse, that looks improbable, if not impossible. The solution is clear: it is time for the government to make the polluter pay, so tobacco manufacturers fund the vital work needed to end smoking.”

The ‘polluter pays’ levy is recommended by ASH and the SPECTRUM public health research consortium in a joint representation to the Budget and Spending Review. The levy is also a recommendation of the APPG on Smoking and Health. The APPG’s vice chair, Mary Foy MP, has tabled several amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill which give powers to the Secretary of State to introduce a levy, which will be considered shortly at Committee stage.

Source: The Dentist, 22 October 2021

See also: Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and SPECTRUM representation to HM Treasury’s Spending Review (SR21) and Budget ([link removed])

The Guardian - ‘Smoking kills’ could be printed on every cigarette under new UK proposals ([link removed])
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** The NHS could soon be unable to deliver “the care it needs to” for women giving birth if the surge in Covid cases continues, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said.

Dr Edward Morris, the UK’s most senior gynaecologist, raised the alarm about the increasing pressures on the health service as Covid cases rise and it battles a huge backlog of 5.7 million patients caused by the first and second waves of the virus.

He told The Guardian he was increasingly concerned about the “immense pressures” facing maternity staff. The latest figures suggest the sharp rise in new cases reported in recent weeks is now having an impact on hospital numbers, with average daily Covid hospital admissions in England at their highest level for nearly eight months. Morris said the surge in Covid infections also threatened to derail efforts to tackle a huge backlog in cases of women waiting for gynaecological treatment. Senior doctors say operations are already being cancelled in some parts of the country.

Morris raised fears patient safety could be put at risk in maternity wards if the increase in Covid cases and hospitalisations resulted in specialist staff being redeployed to other parts of hospitals, as happened in the first coronavirus wave. “The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and we’re becoming increasingly concerned about the immense pressures facing our maternity staff this winter if the situation continues as it is,” he said.

Source: The Guardian, 24 October 2021
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** Writing in the Houston Chronicle, Paul Chamberlain, a managing editor of Tobacco Tactics and a partner in STOP, a global tobacco industry watchdog, discusses how Formula One continues to circumnavigate laws which prohibit tobacco advertising and sponsorship in some countries.

Chamberlain highlights the case of a Formula One race in Japan in October 2018, where a new logo appeared on the Ferrari team’s cars: “Mission Winnow”. It later emerged that this was part of an advertising campaign by cigarette company Philip Morris International (PMI) “and part of a smokescreen to help distract attention from all the cigarettes it sells.” The “Mission Winnow” logo bears branding similarities with Philip Morris’ iconic Marlboro cigarette brand.

McLaren, another Formula One racing company, has a similar advertising agreement with British American Tobacco (BAT) and promoted their “A Better Tomorrow” campaign in 2019. The campaign was aimed at raising awareness of BAT’s smokefree products. Chamberlain states that e-cigarette and nicotine pouch brands are now “openly advertised on the cars and clothing of the McLaren team, its social media, team events and in a video game competition for McLaren fans”.

Chamberlain observes that while tobacco control measures have improved globally, “cigarettes companies need to recruit new customers for their products”, and Formula One is “actively recruiting young fans” as it continues to give marketing access to the tobacco industry through sponsorships. The author states that in 2001, Formula One’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, chose to join other global sports and commit to ending all tobacco sponsorship and advertising by 2006, but that “ban” became a “recommendation” that was never fully implemented. Tobacco money never went away, laying the groundwork for the latest revival.

Chamberlain concludes that “Young fans are being exposed to tobacco messaging today because of the sport’s failure to fully quit tobacco sponsorship 15 years ago. Ultimately, Formula One needs to quit its addiction to tobacco money and put the health and wellbeing of current and future fans first.”

Source: Houston Chronicle, 24 October 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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