From Action on Smoking and Health <[email protected]>
Subject ASH Daily News for 26 January 2022
Date January 26, 2022 1:06 PM
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** 26 January 2022
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** UK
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** UK ovarian cancer death rate down 17% since 2017, study suggests (#1)
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** International
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** California bill would ban single-use smoking plastics like cigarette filters (#2)
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** Farmers are better off abandoning tobacco, according to Kenyan report (#3)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary question (#4)
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** UK
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**
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** New research has found that death rates from ovarian cancer in the UK are predicted to have fallen by 17% in 2022 compared with five years ago.

The research, published in the journal Annals of Oncology, predicts that 4,000 women will die from ovarian cancer in the UK in 2022, with an expected death rate of 4.57 women per 100,000. In the 1970s, the UK had the highest death rate in Europe at nearly nine per 100,000. As well as use of oral contraceptives, the research cited improvements in diagnosis and treatment as reasons for the rate of decline in the UK, which is higher than declines seen in Europe.

The research also considered the ten most common cancers and predicted that death rates will continue to fall in the UK in 2022, although overall numbers dying will increase because of an ageing population. The research predicts 176,800 overall deaths from cancer in the UK in 2022, a fall of 7% in men and 6% in women in the UK since 2017. The researchers warned to treat the results with some caution because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On smoking, lead author Professor Carlo La Vecchia from the University of Milan noted: “Tobacco continues to play a key role and is the major cause of deaths from cancer across Europe. Smoking influences death rates from a range of cancers, including pancreatic, lung, and bladder cancers.”
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**
Source: The Guardian, 26 January 2022

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** See also: Annals of Oncology - European cancer mortality predictions for the year 2022 with focus on ovarian cancer ([link removed](21)04881-X/fulltext)
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**
Scienmag - Death rates from ovarian cancer will fall in the EU and UK in 2022 ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed])


** International
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**
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** The California Assembly has introduced a new bill that would ban single-use cigarette filters in the state. The bill would allow local prosecutors across California to issue a fine of $500 (£370) per violation. The bill also proposes a ban on e-cigarette products that damage the environment.

Supporters of the bill noted that cigarette butts, not biodegradable and commonly littered along California’s coast, do not offer health benefits for smokers, cost the state around $41m (£30.3m) dollars a year to clean up, and release toxic microplastics into the environment. Roughly 12 billion cigarettes are sold in California each year with 90% containing plastic filters. Nicholas Mallos, senior director of the Trash Free Seas Program at the Ocean Conservancy, says that cigarette butts make up nearly 30% of the litter collected by volunteers on the annual Coastal Cleanup Day.

The bill also targets vape products that, although advertised as disposable, contain batteries and fluids that damage the environment. The bill would not ban reusable and rechargeable vape products. Similar bills have previously been proposed in the Legislature but have been unsuccessful. Assembly member Mark Stone claimed that this is often because legislators are taking money from tobacco industry lobbyists. Stone says that this time should be different with a “growing awareness” and a “stronger coalition” of supporters.
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**
Source: LA Times, 25 January 2022
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Read Article ([link removed])


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** A new report has found that tobacco farmers in Kenya would make more money from harvesting other crops. The reports also says that the Government has failed to sufficiently promote alternative crops to Kenyan farmers.

An estimated 55,000 farmers produce tobacco in Kenya, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. But farmers told the report’s researchers that they are caught up in a cycle of debt. Tobacco farming requires very high labour requirements, large amounts of water, environmentally harmful pesticides, and leads to environmental degradation during wood-fired curing. Farmers also often experience acute nicotine poisoning, also called ‘green tobacco sickness’, during leaf harvesting.

The report notes that a typical tobacco farmer would make between Sh24,585 (£160) and Sh36,200 (£236) per acre. In comparison, crops such as tomatoes yield profits of between Sh84,360 (£550) and Sh134,900 (£879) per acre with groundnuts and maize also making a substantively larger profit. Despite this, the report says that the Government has failed to act on a 2007 Act which obligates the Government to introduce alternative crops for tobacco farmers.

Another issue cited in the report is that farmers receive inputs on loan from the companies that buy their tobacco leaves at inflated prices, forcing them to keep growing tobacco and borrowing again. Tobacco companies also refuse to buy tobacco from farmers once their loans have been reclaimed. The chair of the Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance says that the Government must formulate policies to aggressively promote non-tobacco crops to farmers. The study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, with researchers from Nairobi University, McGill University, University of Ottawa, and the American Cancer Society.
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Source: The Star (Kenya), 25 January 2022
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Read Article ([link removed])


** Parliamentary Activity
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**
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**
PQ1: Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016

Asked by Lee Anderson, Ashfield

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** To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, at what stage in the process is the post-implementation review of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016; and when that review will be published.
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**
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** Answered by Maggie Throup, Public Health Minister

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** The Department will publish its response to the post implementation review of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, as well as the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products 2015, early this year. The review reports are currently with the Regulatory Policy Committee and we await the conclusion of their process. Following these reviews, the Department will consider the need for any regulatory changes.
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**
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** Source: Hansard, 25 January 2022
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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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