|
|
|
|
More than 650 health experts and activists are calling on the government to back amendments in the forthcoming Health and Care Bill that they say will help England become smokefree by 2030.
Two years ago ministers pledged to make England smoke free by 2030, underpinned by making smoked tobacco obsolete and helping smokers quit or to move to reduced risk products such as e-cigarettes. But the government has still not published its new Tobacco Control Plan to deliver the smoke free ambition, which it pledged to publish this year, or the post-implementation review of tobacco regulations, which it was required in law to do by May 2021.
In an open letter published in The BMJ, leading doctors, professional bodies, and charity leaders say that, on current trends in smoking, the 2030 target will be missed by seven years overall and by 14 years for smokers in the most disadvantaged social groups. “Worse still, new evidence shows that during the pandemic, there has actually been an increase in smoking among young adults,” they wrote.
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health published a report in June this year with recommendations for how the government could get back on track. These recommendations now form several amendments to the Health and Care Bill, which has its third reading in the House of Commons on 23 November. If passed, the amendments will give the government the power to implement the group’s recommendations, say the campaigners.
The letter reads: “These amendments could fix loopholes in existing legislation and make it illegal to brand e-cigarettes with the intent of increasing their appeal to children and younger people. They would also require the government to consult on raising the age of sale to 21, within three months of royal assent, a key measure which has been effective in the US in reducing smoking in 18-20 year olds by 30%.”
The amendments also enable the government to introduce a “polluter pays” levy, something it promised to consider when it announced its smokefree ambition. “The spending review failed to reinstate public health funding, so the levy is essential if the necessary resources are to be found for important tobacco control measures such as comprehensive media campaigns to change behaviour,” said the experts, who include Nicholas Hopkinson, chair of Action on Smoking and Health ASH, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation Partnership, Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and Maggie Rae, president of the Faculty of Public Health.
“We strongly urge the government to accept the amendments championed by the APPG on Smoking and Health, without which it cannot deliver on its commitment to ‘finish the job,” they wrote.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are addressing the damaging health implications of smoking right across the country, especially where rates remain stubbornly high. Our new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will support efforts to level up public health and ensure no communities are left behind. We will soon set out how we will deliver our bold ambition to be smokefree by 2030 in our new Tobacco Control Plan.”
Source: The BMJ, 19 November 2021
|
|
Smokers in the UK are set for a major change, as new eco-friendly rules mean many cigarette components will be banned. Government ministers have recently announced plans to phase out several common plastic disposable items to protect the planet. The list of items includes single-use coffee cups, wet wipes - and cigarette filters.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said the Government intended to “wage war” on plastic pollution. He described the plastics as “unnecessary” and “wasteful.” Eustice said: “These new plans represent the next major step in eradicating the use of problematic plastics.”
Researchers have said that more than a million birds and 100,000 sea mammals and turtles die each year from swallowing plastic waste or getting tangled in it. The changes come as cigarette sales increased for the first time in decades last year. In its annual Cigarette Report, the Federal Trade Commission said that manufacturers sold 203.7 billion cigarettes in 2020, up from 202.9 billion in 2019 — an increase of 0.4%. According to Bloomberg, the increase may have occurred due to people stockpiling cigarettes during the pandemic, in fear of shortages.
Source: Express, 20 November 2021
|
|
New analysis from Bradford District Labour reveals a £9.13 million - or 17.6% - cut in government public health support for the district since 2015/16. Local public health teams are responsible for services that help save money in the longer term by improving public health, such as stop smoking services, sexual health services, health checks, mental health, drug and alcohol services, children’s public health services and programmes to tackle obesity, among other key public health programmes.
Government cuts to Bradford’s public health budgets have meant that public health teams across the district have had to make difficult decisions about where they spend their money, alongside carrying out vital work to control the spread of COVID-19, including local outbreak planning and, crucially, promotional work to support the vaccine rollout.
Bradford Council’s Labour Leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe said: “Investing in public health is good for the community and good for the NHS yet instead of the support we need, what local people got in last month’s budget was yet another tax rise. […] Low growth has led to high tax and less investment in our public services.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are absolutely committed to levelling up health, and the new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will support people of all ages, in all areas of the country, to live healthier lives and prevent illness. The Government is supporting Directors of Public Health and their teams to protect and improve public health and wellbeing by making over £10 billion available to local councils to address the wider costs and impacts of COVID-19. We have also increased the local authority public health grant to over £3.3bn this year and allocated additional funding to tackle obesity and drug addiction.”
Source: Telegraph & Argus, 21 November 2021
|
|
New research shows that thousands of smokers may be dying of cardiovascular disease (CVD) without knowing they have it. The researchers had analysed nine previously published studies using more than 106,000 US adults who were each followed for up to 25 years. The study researchers found that at least 10% of women and 20% of men who smoke will ultimately die of a CVD event like a heart attack or stroke. While some may have been aware they had CVD, the researchers found that many will have had no idea they had CVD before it killed them.
The researchers also found this was most likely to happen to over 60s - 4.9% of female smokers and 6.7% of male smokers. However, the rates were still high for those in their 40s and 50s, respectively, at 4.5% and 4.8%. Even among young people in their 20s and 30s, some 1.6/1.7% of smokers suddenly die of a CVD event without being diagnosed. The researchers concluded in their paper that those who smoke have an increased risk of CVD, “in particular on the occurrence of a fatal CVD event as the first presentation,” compared to non-smokers.
The lead author of the study Dr Sadiya Khan said: “The risk for heart disease is sometimes thought of as something that doesn’t affect younger adults and is a long time away. These results emphasise that even short-term exposure to smoking can have negative consequences.” But the researchers noted it is never too late to quit cigarettes. The risk of a heart attack halves just one year after a person stops smoking.
Source: The Sun. 19 November 2021
See also: JAHA - Cigarette Smoking and Competing Risks for Fatal and Nonfatal Cardiovascular Disease Subtypes Across the Life Course
|
|
New Smokefree 2025 laws are coming into effect this week (28th November), designed to protect children in the car from smoking and vaping. However, new research shows more support may be needed for smokers to quit or at least stop smoking while driving.
Addiction’s specialist Leanne French welcomes the new legislation but wants more support for smokers. “Smokers still do need more education and exposure to information to help them understand what the health risks are not only to them, but to their children in order to change their minds more effectively”, she said.
French continued by saying: “I would suggest they change the car environment by clearing all smoking items out, including the inbuilt lighter, to lessen the automatic nature of the habit. There are also a number of easily accessible online counselling services which can help smokers quit. Counselling can help smokers make behavioural changes and to problem-solve when it comes to working out coping strategies for triggers.”
Source: Stuff, 22 November 2021
|
|
Australia’s drugs regulator, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has fined four individuals and companies more than $170,000 for unlawfully advertising or importing vaping products, with one company hit with more than $100,000 in infringement notices.
In October, laws came into effect that prevents nicotine-containing vaping products from being obtained without a prescription. Doctors are only supposed to prescribe them as a last resort when more proven quit treatments fail. Since the new laws kicked in, websites have emerged offering to link vapers to a health practitioner authorised to prescribe the products. But the new regulations only allow pharmacies and pharmacy-marketing groups to advertise in a very limited way.
The latest company to be fined by the TGA for breaching the guidelines is Sydney-based company Mason Online. In a statement, the TGA alleged Mason Online is responsible for several vaping websites, one of which promoted the use and supply of nicotine vaping products in a non-compliant way. Under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, vaping products that contain nicotine are prescription-only medicines and cannot be advertised to the public. The TGA issued eight infringement notices totalling $106,560 to Mason Online after the company allegedly did not respond to multiple warnings about their advertising.
The chief executive of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health [Acosh], Maurice Swanson, said he was pleased to see the TGA acting swiftly following the introduction of the laws.
Source: The Guardian, 22 November 2021
|
|
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here.
For more information email [email protected] or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
