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** 8 November 2021
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** UK
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** Firms under fire for using UK influencers to push nicotine products (#1)
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** Ambitious plans to make Wales smokefree by 2030 (#2)
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** Parents in Teesside warned as hundreds of colourful illegal vapes targeted at kids are seized (#3)
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** Gambling firms among heaviest radio advertisers during school run (#4)
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** International
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** Navajo Nation bans indoor smoking throughout reservation, including casinos (#5)
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** Two new smoking medicines added to WHO essential list, WHO approves new tobacco consortium (#6)
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** UK
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Tobacco companies have come under fire for using UK influencers with up to 2.2m followers to promote nicotine products to young people. The firms, which include British American Tobacco (BAT) and Ismod UK, which sells electronic tobacco heating devices, have used at least 26 social media influencers including DJs, rappers, a former Made in Chelsea star, and a racing driver.

Examples of the advertising include DJ GW Harrison showcasing cans of Velo, a brand of flavoured nicotine pouches made by BAT, and telling his 35,000 followers: “My favourite has to be the ruby berry flavour. What’s yours?”, and DJ Jess Bays telling her followers: “Product is so cool – especially for in the clubs!”. BAT maintains that the marketing is aimed at over-18s but verifying the age of users on social media sites is difficult and, according to a report by social media analytics firm Klear, 35% of the audience for posts promoting Velo on Instagram are under 24.

Ismod UK has enlisted young fashion influencers on Instagram for its marketing, including a menswear influencer with more than 9,800 followers and fashion models with more than 140,000 followers. In the caption on a sponsored post, model Chloe Bain offers a discount code offering up to 20% off. Advertising Standards Authority regulations ban under-25s from “playing a significant role” in the non-broadcast advertising of cigarette alternatives but Spokes claims in her Instagram bio to be 20-years-old. Nicotine pouch company Swedish Match has also targeted UK users on Facebook with a glossy page implying that its Zyn nicotine pouches can be used alongside tobacco.

In a letter to chief executives of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, a coalition of more than 100 health groups are demanding an end to the promotion of the products on social media. “The true intention of these ads is quite clear: to keep customers addicted to nicotine and to entice young people to try nicotine products” says Caroline Renzulli, of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
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** Source: Guardian, 8 November 2021
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** Deputy Minister for Wellbeing in Wales, Lynne Neagle, has today (November 8) launched a consultation for the Wales Government’s new long-term tobacco control strategy, A Smoke-free Wales. The consultation will be open until 31 January 2022 and feeds into a strategy which aims to achieve a smokefree Wales by 2030, in which less than 5% of the population smoke. The new strategy will consider measures for tackling health inequalities and helping more smokers to quit.

The strategy will consider how more quitting support can be given to more people through the free NHS service, Help Me Quit, and plans to expand help for smokers in hospital. It could ask publicly funded organisations to go smokefree and to support their workforce to get advice and support to quit smoking. Wales is already the first nation in the UK to introduce smokefree playgrounds, school grounds, and hospital grounds, and will ban smoking bedrooms in hotels, guest houses, and self-contained holiday accommodation like cottages, caravans, and AirBnBs next year.

Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle, said: “Smoking remains the leading cause of premature death in Wales and a major contributor to health inequalities. Whilst we have made progress in recent years, we want to go further and be ambitious to create a Wales where smoking is far from the norm. I encourage people to share their views on this consultation.”

Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Frank Atherton, said: “We need to work together as a society, including government, health professionals and communities to ensure we are doing all we can to tackle smoking and reduce the ill health smoking causes. I would encourage anyone wanting to give up smoking to access Wales’ free NHS support service, HelpMeQuit for help and support.”
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Source: Wales 247, 8 November 2021
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Parents in Teesside are being warned to be vigilant after the seizure of hundreds of illegal and potentially dangerous vapes by Trading Standards teams. Among the 800 disposable e-cigarettes seized were several which targeted children with cartoon characters on the packaging and flavours like bubble gum, double apple, and icy cola, and some resembling colourful highlighter pens.

None of the products seized or voluntarily surrendered across the borough over the past few weeks have been authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Trading Standards officers are reminding local businesses to alert traders that vapes should not contain more than 2ml of e-liquid or have a nicotine content of more than 2%.

Source: Teesside Gazette, 7 November 2021
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** New research has found that gambling companies are amongst the heaviest advertisers on radio during “school run” hours when millions of children are in the car. The data, by market analysis firm Nielsen, shows that gambling is second in a list of industries that spend the most to appear on commercial radio between 7am and 8am and 3pm to 4pm. The findings have prompted warnings about children’s exposure to promotions for the national lottery, online casinos, and sports betting.

The analysis found that gambling accounted for 5% of all spending during school-run hours, with about 1,200 hours of ads airing over the past 12 months. The amount spent on gambling ads was exceeded only by government communications, including Covid-19 messages, and motor supplies. Many of the ads are for the national lottery, but also include betting and online slot machine brands such as Gala Casino. After it was contacted by the Guardian, Entain, which owns Gala Casino, is understood to have moved to prevent broadcast during weekday school-run times.

Heather Wardle, from Glasgow University, said: “Commercial gambling is rightly considered an adult-only activity, yet the way it’s advertised across radio and other media makes it very difficult to protect our children from being exposed to this. Evidence from the Gambling Commission shows that 7% of children exposed to gambling advertising said that seeing or hearing advertising prompts them to gamble when they were not planning on doing so.” MP Carolyn Harris, chair of a cross-party group on gambling harms, said: “Until we completely overhaul their access to advertising platforms, we will continue to expose children to this unrelenting attack.”

Source: Guardian, 8 November 2021
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** International
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** The president of the Navajo Nation has announced that smoking will be banned in enclosed public locations in its reservation, including at the Navajo Nation’s four casinos. Jonathon Nez, president of the largest Native American Reservation in the United States, signed the legislation on Saturday 6 November, making permanent a ban which was already temporarily in place due to COVID-19.

In a statement, Nez called the ban 'a fundamental right to protect our Navajo people's right to breathe clean air.' Tobacco use in the Navajo Nation’s private homes or for ceremonial purposes will still be allowed, as long as they do not function as childcare centres, adult care centres, or as business offices. Navajo Nation lawmakers had approved the bill banning smoking in public buildings in October which Nez has now signed into law before the Sunday deadline to act on it.

Nez credited the work of the Air is Life coalition, which has campaigned on the danger and risks of secondhand smoke for over 13 years, in pushing through the bill. Previous attempts to ban smoking in the Navajo Nation’s public indoor spaces had been unsuccessful. The tribal council had approved one attempt in 2008 but it was vetoed by then-President Joe Shirley, who cited concerns that the ban would affect the gambling revenue made in casinos owned by the Navajo Nation.

While the act has mostly received widespread public support, critics have echoed Shirley’s concern with impacts on gambling revenue and noted concern that the bill also bans the use of smokeless commercial tobacco products, which they say Navajo people use as an aid to quit smoking.
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Source: Daily Mail, 7 November 2021
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has added two new tobacco cessation medicines to its official list of essential medicines, The Model List of Essential Medicines, which guides countries on the types of medicine that should be available in the country, now includes Bupropion and varenicline, medicines which reduce cravings for nicotine without supplying a nicotine substitute.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also approved the establishment of a new global WHO Tobacco Cessation Consortium. The Consortium will engage stakeholders, including from civil society, to make comprehensive smoking cessation support available to all across the world. Examples of potential activities include making the WHO’s essential smoking cessation medicines accessible and affordable, pooling funds for WHO's tobacco cessation activities worldwide, serving as a hub for innovative technological solutions for smoking support, and serving as a knowledge hub for countries to obtain resources and guidance on smoking cessation.

The Consortium has been founded after the Global Investment Case for Tobacco Cessation presented data from a return-on-investment analysis of 124 low- and middle-income countries, finding that $1.68 (£1.24) per capita invested in comprehensive tobacco cessation interventions over a 10-year period results in 152 million successful quitters and 2.7 million lives saved. The WHO has developed a national investment case methodology for countries which uses economic data to outline the economic burden of tobacco use and the costs and benefits of interventions.
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Source: Property Aspects Magazine, 5 November 2021

See also: Property Aspects Magazine - WHO Director-General approves tobacco cessation consortium ([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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