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** 26 October 2021
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** UK
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** Child obesity linked to England’s widening health disparities, study finds (#1)
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** Milton Keynes: Councillor pledges to quit cigarettes after urging the council to ban smoking outside schools (#2)
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** Tall tales and toxic tweets about e-cigarettes are stopping smokers from quitting, study finds (#3)
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** International
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** US Study: Quitting at younger age cuts most smoking-associated cancer mortality risk (#4)
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** Zimbabwe: Chiwenga pushes for alcohol and cigarettes tax (#5)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions (#6)
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** UK
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**
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** New analysis suggests that hundreds of thousands of children in England are growing up overweight or obese because of widening health disparities across the country. Child obesity has increased in recent years for a variety of reasons. Children live increasingly sedentary lifestyles, where physical activity has fallen and activities such as watching TV, playing video games and spending time on phones have increased.

However, a new analysis performed by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank, and the analytics consultancy LCP for the Guardian, suggests as many as one in 12 cases could be avoided if health outcomes in the worst parts of England were improved to match the best.

The analysis shows that of the 1.4 million 10- and 11-year-olds living in England, about 35% are overweight or obese, which is the equivalent of 488,586 children. Their excess weight means they will face a higher risk of serious conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease or cancer later in life. But if health outcomes everywhere improved to match the areas where they are traditionally best, such as the home counties and more affluent London boroughs, the proportion could be cut to 32%. That would mean 41,879 fewer overweight or obese children in year 6 this year alone.

According to the analysis, Barking and Dagenham, the worst-performing part of the country, has double the rate of overweight or obese children than the best area, Richmond upon Thames. Barking and Dagenham also had nearly five times higher rates of child poverty and 10% lower levels of early years development compared with the best performing area. These variables had a statistically significant correlation to childhood obesity, the IPPR senior research fellow Chris Thomas said.

“Our figures suggest that thousands of cases of childhood obesity could be avoided if the government take tough action on material inequalities and poverty. If not, obesity will pose a threat not only to people’s health – but to economic prosperity and levelling up,” Thomas added.

Source: The Guardian, 25 October 2021

See also: IPPR- The disease of disparity: A blueprint to make progress on health inequalities in England ([link removed])
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** A local councillor has vowed to quit smoking after successfully persuading the council to discourage smoking outside schools. Councillor Paul Trendall moved a successful motion at Full Council on Wednesday (20 October), asking for signage outside schools urging parents and carers not to smoke within 20 metres of school gates or other entrances/exits. He announced that if all councillors supported the motion, he would quit smoking once and for all.

Councillor Paul said: “I am pleased that all parties came together to protect children and young people, as this is at the heart of our Council Plan. I had my final cigarette on Wednesday night and hope that this pledge sends a strong message. It is our duty to protect our younger residents and adults not smoking outside schools sets a good example.”

The Cabinet will now consider using the council’s influence to persuade academies also to put up signage.

Source: MK Citizen, 25 October 2021
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** New research has found that adult smokers who were considering switching to vaping were deterred by tweets falsely implying that e-cigs are more harmful than conventional cigarettes. Bristol University and Pennsylvania University researchers are the first to examine the effect of this type of misinformation, which has important implications for public health.

In the Cancer Research UK-funded study, 2,400 adult smokers were recruited from the US and UK to participate in an online experiment. The study participants were shown different types of health information and asked for their opinions on e-cigarettes, their intention to buy them, how they perceived them compared to regular cigarettes and their intention to quit smoking. Then they were asked to look at four tweets and were quizzed about each one.

Results showed that US and UK adult smokers were deterred from considering using e-cigarettes even after brief exposure to tweets saying e-cigarettes were as harmful or more damaging than smoking.

Associate professor Andy Tan of Pennsylvania University says: “These findings are important because they show that even brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarettes may be hindering efforts to reduce the burden of tobacco smoking on current smokers in the US and UK.”

Dr Caroline Wright, of Bristol Medical School, and the study’s lead author, said: “Health information is commonly accessed online, with recent reports showing around 63% of UK adults using the internet to look for health-related information and 75% of US adults using it as their first source of health information.
“However, this ease of accessing information comes at a cost as the spread of misinformation can have negative consequences on people’s health choices and behaviour.”

Source: Mirror, 25 October 2021

See also: BMJ Journals - Effects of brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on twitter: a randomised controlled experiment ([link removed])
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** International
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**
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** New research has shown that starting to smoke at any age is associated with an increased cancer mortality rate, while quitting can avert most of this risk, especially at younger ages. The study researchers looked at data on more than 410,000 Americans with 3.7 million person-years of follow-up.

Around 10,000 participants at age 25 to 79 years died of cancer during the study period. And on average, smokers were three times more likely to die of cancer compared with people who had never smoked.
The younger people start smoking, the greater their risk of eventually dying from cancer. Among those who began before age 18, the risk of dying from cancer was increased at least three-fold. Additionally, people who started smoking before age ten had a fourfold increased chance of dying from cancer than lifelong nonsmokers.

The researchers also found that smokers who quit before age 35 eliminated their excess risk of dying from cancer. Meanwhile, those who quit before age 45 reduced their excess risk by 87%.

Source: US News, 25 October 2021

See also: Jama Oncology - Association of Smoking Initiation and Cessation Across the Life Course and Cancer Mortality Prospective Study of 410 000 US Adults ([link removed])
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** Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the health minister, has proposed a new tax for the 2022 national budget, which will raise the prices of cigarettes and alcohol to help finance the health sector.

Chiwenga also proposed to divert some Zinara funds to the Health ministry to avoid overtaxing the already overstretched citizens: “It is also proposed that a certain number of cigarettes be reserved for financing health, for example, for every five packets sold one goes to the national health services. With regards to alcohol, a certain number of bottles should contribute to financing healthcare services. So let us have a cent from alcohol, cigarettes and Zinara fees, to fund national health services.”

According to the vice president, alcohol and cigarette manufacturers would be directly taxed based on the quantities of manufactured products sold. His remarks came at a time when the health ministry is experiencing a massive brain drain. In addition, the country is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, poor health infrastructure, and shortages of drugs and equipment at hospitals.

Source: News Days, 26 October 2021
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** Parliamentary Activity
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**
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** PQ1 Vectura: Philip Morris International

Asked by Jonathan Ashworth, Leicester South

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason the Competition and Markets Authority did not investigate whether Philip Morris International's takeover of Vectura violated competition law.

Answered by Paul Scully, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets

Decisions on which mergers to investigate on competition grounds are a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is an independent non-ministerial department.
The CMA's role in respect of merger control was set out by Parliament in the Enterprise Act 2002. The Act set limits on the CMAs jurisdiction and the standard by which it must assess those transactions. In particular, the CMA must assess whether a transaction "Has resulted or may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK for goods or services."

Source: Hansard, 22 October 2021 ([link removed] )

PQ2: WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Asked by Jonathan Ashworth, Leicester South

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to ensure that all branches of Government bound by article 5.3 of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are aware of their resulting obligations.

Answered by Maggie Throup, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

We expect all departments to comply with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat's guidance on Article 5.3 and we regularly provide guidance and assistance across Government.

Source: Hansard 25 October 2021 ([link removed])

PQ3: Smoking

Asked by Mr Gregory Campbell, East Londonderry

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of smoking prevalence among adults, what assessment he has made of the feasibility of delivering a smoke-free country by 2030.

Answered by Maggie Throup, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

We are committed to reducing the harms caused by tobacco and smoking rates amongst adults are currently at 13.9%, the lowest on record. The Department is currently preparing a new Tobacco Control Plan which will deliver our ambition to be smoke-free by 2030.

Source: Hansard, 25 October 2021 ([link removed])
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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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