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New research from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has found that 112,000 households across the North East, and more than four in ten households with smokers, live in poverty once spending on smoking is accounted for. The data shows that the average smoker loses around £2,000 in income to smoking in the region, with 17,177 people “economically inactive” due to the impact of smoking on their health.
The poverty figure equates to 42% of all households in the region, well above the England average of 31%. Included is 25,003 households with someone who smokes in poverty in County Durham, 10,912 in Newcastle, 11,613 in Northumberland, and 9,540 in Gateshead. The analysis also looks at social care, finding that smokers in England are two-and-a-half times more likely to need social care support at home and need care, on average, 10 years earlier than non-smokers.
Ailsa Rutter OBE, director of the Fresh regional programme to tackle tobacco use, said: "We already know smoking causes death and disease, but these appalling figures also show how tobacco addiction worsens poverty and misery on an industrial scale. Smoking harms our economy, harms job prospects and costs people years of active life.” Rutter said that it was “vital we give people in our poorest communities the support, the confidence and the means to stop”.
She said it was a "scandal" that tobacco companies continued to make extortionate profits from the mortality and ill health of people in the North East and called on the Government to consider a levy on the tobacco industry to pay for the costs of tobacco control. She also called on the Government to make the impacts of smoking and alcohol on health inequalities key parts of the levelling up agenda, with the Government due to publish a new tobacco control plan this year.
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A new breakdown published today by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) shows that 110,000 households, 30% of all households containing smokers, live in poverty in the South West once spending on smoking is accounted for, close to the England average of 31%.
The findings also show that 25,235 people are economically inactive due to smoking in the South West and that smokers earn 6.8% less than non-smokers. Current smokers are also 2.5 times more likely to need social care support at home in England and need care on average 10 years earlier than non-smokers, accounting for 8% of all local authority spending on adult social care.
Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of ASH, said: “Smoking is the single largest driver of health inequalities in England and it is shocking that it’s contributing to more than two million adults living in poverty, concentrated in the most disadvantaged regions in the country. Behind every statistic is a human being. A real person, threatened by the debilitating health effects of smoking, and significantly poorer because of an addiction that started in childhood. We look forward to the forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan to achieve the Government’s smokefree 2030 ambition, an ambition which is vital to delivering the Government’s manifesto commitments to increase healthy life expectancy, reduce inequalities and level up society.”
Source: Planet Radio, 9 February 2022
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Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced plans to better integrate the NHS and social care that he says will stop patients from “falling into the gaps” between the two systems. The plans were announced in a White Paper published on Tuesday (8 February) and aim to tackle what the white paper calls the current system of complex and disjointed organisations with different priorities.
Plans for more integration include allowing patients to communicate with their care providers on one digital platform which workers can easily access, and creating more integration between hospitals and social care so that care home residents can better access specialist support and avoid going to hospital if unwell. The white paper also aims to build on progress made by Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and to deliver better value for money by reducing duplication and waste.
Another key aim of the white paper is to tailor more local health services to community needs. The paper references making more smoking support available in communities with a high number of smokers and more diabetes clinics in communities with high obesity levels. The plans would also make healthcare more personalized with doctors able to use tools like social prescribing.
The white paper also aims to deal with the treatment backlog and NHS staffing crisis. Javid warned in the Commons on Tuesday that NHS waiting lists are set to rise until 2024 but says that he aims to eliminate waits of longer than a year in elective care by March 2025. On staffing, he said that the Government aims to recruit 10,000 more nurses from overseas and 5,000 more healthcare support workers by the end of March 2022.
Source: Independent, 9 February 2022
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Jessica Hill of the LGC says that there are doubts over the extent to which the Government’s levelling up white paper represents “real devolution” with issues around accountability and mayors.
Hill says that the creation of a new performance body to monitor the performance of local areas in achieving centrally set levelling up goals is one issue. According to one devolution expert the LGC spoke to, the new body could result in “reinventing the Audit Commission”, the previous inspections regime which was widely perceived as onerous and disbanded in 2012.
Another issues concerns mayors. The paper allows counties or otherwise functional economic areas to take on a directly elected mayor in order to access the same powers as existing fully formed mayoral combined authorities, including extra funding through a long-term investment fund. However, Hill says that many councils do not want to elect a mayor but worry about the impact that this will have on access to more powers and funding.
Hill also outlines some of the developments on health. She says that the white paper spoke of “opportunities” for mayoral combined authorities to take on a duty to improve their residents’ health, “concurrent" with their upper-tier councils' existing responsibility. This duty will “complement” public health directors’ health improvement role with more details expected in the new white paper setting out plans for health and social care integration.
Hill concludes that the white paper’s success in devolving power will depend on whether councils are willing to embrace a mayor, as well as on the government’s generosity when it comes to offering long term investment funds. She says that this leaves the Government holding “all of the cards” in its relationship with local government.
Source: LGC, 8 February 2022
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Switzerland will vote on Sunday (13 February) on whether to tighten their loose tobacco laws by banning almost all advertising of health-hazardous products. The vote follows campaigners gathering enough signatures to trigger a popular vote on their proposal to ban the advertising of tobacco products where minors might see it.
Switzerland’s current regulations are more relaxed than other wealthy nations, with tobacco advertising legal at national level, except on television and radio or in adverts specifically targeting minors. Many have blamed this situation on the fact that many of the world’s biggest tobacco companies have headquarters in the country and are known to lobby the Swiss Government.
Some regional authorities in Switzerland (cantons) have already introduced stricter legislation and recent polls indicate a significant majority of Swiss voters favour the measure, but campaigners must convince enough of the country’s 26 cantons to secure the double-majority needed for the initiative to pass. The Swiss Government and parliament oppose the initiative.
Campaigners for the ‘No’ campaign say that banning tobacco advertising would lead to the advertising of other products such as meat being banned, but Jean-Paul Humair, who heads a Geneva addiction prevention centre and serves as a spokesman for the "Yes" campaign, told AFP: "There is no other consumer product that kills half of all users." Currently around 27% of Swiss adults consume tobacco products, more than double the rate in comparable countries such as Australia, with 9,500 tobacco-linked deaths every year.
Source: Medical Xpress, 9 February 2021
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Philip Morris has reportedly opted to stop sponsoring Ferrari in Formula 1. Last year it was revealed that the controversial ‘Mission Winnow’ campaign, which saw Philip Morris advertisement on the Ferrari car at certain races during the Formula 1 season, would be discontinued, but now it has been reported that Philip Morris has walked away from its deal with Ferrari altogether. At a recent test event, Ferrari ran a new livery highlighting the return of former team sponsor Santander.
Source: Sports Mole, 9 February 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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