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In rundown Great Yarmouth, where almost one in four adults smoke, the government’s “smokefree 2030” target – unveiled in 2019 – feels very ambitious. The smoking rate among over 18s was 14% in 2019. But on its current trajectory, the country will overshoot 2030 by seven years, the charity Cancer Research UK has predicted. In places such as Great Yarmouth, where almost one in four adults smoked in 2019-2020, strained public health budgets, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and socio-economic barriers suggest the target is very ambitious. The borough is the most deprived in Norfolk, and men in one ward have a reduced life expectancy of 10 years below the UK’s average.
Local authorities fund public health through a grant from the central government. According to research from the Health Foundation, this has been cut by 24% on a real-terms per capita basis since 2015-2016. Smoking cessation and tobacco control have had the largest cut of any services, at 33%. Stop smoking and tobacco control services have been cut by a third in the past six years. “The signs are that the government is not learning the lessons about the need for adequately funding public health,” said Grace Everest, a policy fellow at the Health Foundation. Delays to the government’s tobacco control plan for England have hindered progress. The strategy, which will set out how to reach “smokefree 2030”, was due in July 2021 but has yet to be released.
“Basically, the government has done nothing in the two years since it committed [in 2019] . . . to make England smokefree by 2030,” said Deborah Arnott, head of the charity Action on Smoking and Health. “We’re doing all we can to make government engage the gears and get a move on.” The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We will set out how we will deliver our bold ambition to be smokefree by 2030 in our new tobacco control plan”, although it did not confirm the publication date.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, advised by ASH, published a raft of suggestions in June. These included a “polluter pays” model, which would levy profits on big tobacco companies that benefit from high smoking rates. Capping profits at 10% could raise £700m a year, enough money to support smoking cessation services and leave £385m for the government to spend on other public health measures, ASH said.
One sign of progress is the UK’s emphasis on tobacco harm reduction, where it is “quite rightly” regarded as a world leader, Everest said. Plans to medicinally license e-cigarettes, given recent impetus by new guidance from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, could allow general practitioners to prescribe them nationwide.
Source: Financial Times, 2 January 2022
See also: APPG Report - Delivering a Smokefree 2030: The All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health recommendations for the Tobacco Control Plan 2021
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Medical experts have warned that teenagers whose parents or caregivers smoke are four times as likely to take up smoking. The statistic was one of many released as part of the Better Health Smokefree campaign to encourage smokers to make giving up their new year resolution.
NHS and behavioural health experts discussed the link between adult smoking and the likelihood of children in their household becoming smokers. Other findings discussed by the group were that early teenagers whose main caregiver smoked were more than twice as likely to have tried cigarettes and four times as likely to be a regular smoker.
Maggie Throup, parliamentary under-secretary of state and minister for vaccines and public health, said: “We know that many people make a quit attempt in January, and while there are so many good reasons to stop smoking for yourself, we hope that this new campaign – by highlighting the intergenerational smoking link with parents influencing their children – will be the added motivation many need to ditch the cigarettes for good this year.”
Prof Nick Hopkinson of Imperial College London added: “Our research findings are clear – adult smoking has a tangible impact on children. Children whose caregivers smoke are four times as likely to take up smoking themselves. The most effective way to help prevent this would be for adults to quit smoking – clearly not only does this have enormous benefits for them, but it will also benefit their children both now and in later life.”
Source: The Guardian, 28 December 2021
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Smokers who want to start the new year off by stopping are being offered vaping devices by Kirklees Council and the charity Yorkshire Cancer Research. The devices are being offered as part of the Kirklees Wellness Service, a council-funded initiative that supports over 18s in Kirklees to live healthier lives. They are also being supported by the Auntie Pam’s Service, which supports new parents and pregnant women to stop smoking.
Vaping is a far less harmful alternative to smoking, according to both the NHS and the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), formerly known as Public Health England. Smokers can drastically improve their health by replacing cigarettes with vaping devices. A recent review of evidence by global researchers Cochrane has shown that vaping devices are more effective than Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) when supporting smokers to quit.
Councillor Musarrat Khan, the Cabinet member for health and social care, said: “I am delighted to see the launch of this vaping device scheme here in Kirklees. As a council, we are committed to tackling health inequalities and the vaping device offer from Yorkshire Cancer Research will help those residents who want to stop smoking live healthier lives and have a positive impact on their family and friends.”
By reducing smoking rates, the country takes one step closer to fulfilling the UK Government’s ambition for England to be smokefree by 2030, a move that could save local NHS trusts millions of pounds.
Source: Yorkshire Live, 3 January 2022
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Bristol’s smoking rates have highlighted “entrenched” health inequalities a report has found. Christina Gray, the city’s director of public health, said declining smoking rates had exposed “big inequalities” between rich and poor. There is a “wide variation” of smoking rates, with it “concentrated among more disadvantaged communities and groups.”
The report reveals that about 18% of Bristol's population currently smoke - equating to 66,000 people. This is “significantly higher” than the England average of 13.9%. The report - Pause, Breathe, Reflect: Lessons from Covid-19 - said that more than 100 residents die prematurely - before the age of 75 - each year from a lung illness.
According to the report, between 2015 and 2019, 35% of all premature deaths caused by respiratory disease occurred in the most deprived areas of Bristol, compared with only 7% in the least deprived wards. In 2019 almost 10% of pregnant women smoked, with those from more disadvantaged backgrounds most likely to do so.
The report said goals in the One City Plan included for it to be the norm by 2029 for no pregnant women to smoke and all to live in a smoke-free home and for less than 3% of residents to smoke by 2046. Despite the report’s warnings, Ms Gray is optimistic that Bristol will improve lung health and “reduce the inequalities” in the future.
Source: BBC News, 3 January 2022
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A complete ban on the sale of tobacco and a sharp reduction in the number of outlets allowed to sell such products are two of the strategies being explored to help eradicate cigarette smoking in Ireland. The HSE is also looking into making major tobacco companies cover the massive health costs shouldered by the State caring for sick or dying people because of smoking. According to HSE figures, 100 people die and 1,000 people are hospitalised in Ireland every week because of tobacco use.
Surveys will be conducted early next year to explore public support for “innovative” strategies to bring about the “endgame” for cigarette smoking. The results will feed into a report for the Tobacco-Free Ireland Strategic Programme Plan 2022. The research will explore levels of public support for banning or severely limiting the sale of tobacco products, including the proposed limiting of tobacco sales to a substantially reduced number of licensed retailers or pharmacies only. The research will also explore banning the sale of tobacco products near schools and universities and reducing the affordability of tobacco products through tax increases of up to 20% a year.
Moves targeting the tobacco industry that will be explored include banning tobacco representatives from meeting government and requiring tobacco companies to pay the health service for tobacco-related health costs.
Source: The Irish Times, 30 December 2021
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Greg Hunt, Australia’s health minister, has attacked tobacco companies for targeting Indigenous Australians and urging them to smoke, calling it “disgusting and inappropriate.” On Monday (3rd January), the health minister said smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were three times that of the national average.
“This is a particular blight and a particular scourge on Indigenous Australians and to those tobacco companies that are targeting Indigenous Australians – stop,” he told reporters. “It’s disgusting. It’s deadly. And, frankly, it’s completely inappropriate.”
Mr Hunt said about 19,000 Australians lose their lives each year from smoking-related conditions, with lung cancer contributing to about half of those deaths. The government last week announced $188million in funding to extend for another four years the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program – a targeted initiative aimed at reducing smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The funding is part of the government’s commitment to reduce smoking rates among Indigenous Australians to 27% or less by 2030.
Mr Hunt said the program had reduced the number of Indigenous Australians aged 15 years and over who were daily smokers from 50% in 2004-05. Mr Hunt concluded by saying: “Smoking is a factor in 37% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths. Reducing smoking rates is a simple and effective way to save and protect lives.”
Source: News.com.au, 3 January 2022
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Retailers in Armenia are now banned from displaying tobacco products as some important provisions of the tobacco control law come into force.
On 11 February 2020, the Parliament of Armenia voted to pass the Law on reduction and prevention of harm to health due to the use of tobacco products and their substitutes. These provisions prohibit the public display of tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes, liquid-based nicotine products (vapes), and electronic nicotine delivery devices at trade centres or in public catering establishments.
The public display of empty boxes, blocks, trademarks or symbols is prohibited. The ban on smoking in cafés and restaurants will come into force in March 2022.
Source: Public Radio of Armenia, 3 January 2022
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