View this email in your browser ([link removed])
** 15 February 2022
------------------------------------------------------------
** UK
------------------------------------------------------------
** Nightclub near Essex destroyed after fire from discarded cigarette (#1)
------------------------------------------------------------
** Matt Hancock broke law over Dido Harding appointment, high court rules (#2)
------------------------------------------------------------
** International
------------------------------------------------------------
** Tobacco company still funding anti-smoking programmes for young people in the US despite criticism (#3)
------------------------------------------------------------
** Analysis: Why Switzerland has one of the world's strongest tobacco lobbies (#4)
------------------------------------------------------------
** UK
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** A nightclub in Enfield, Essex, has been heavily damaged after a cigarette discarded on Saturday morning (February 12) started a fire. London Fire Brigade were forced to attend the scene with six fire engines and around 40 firefighters, discovering that part of the first floor and the roof of the building were damaged by the fire. There were no reports of any injuries at the scene.
A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: "This fire started on the balcony and spread into the roof void and is believed to have been started by a discarded cigarette. We’d rather you didn’t smoke at all, but if you are a smoker, it’s absolutely vital you ensure your cigarette is completely out when you’ve finished smoking it. If you don’t, you risk causing a fire which could not only destroy your home, but also cost you your life.”
------------------------------------------------------------
**
Source: Essex Live, 15 February 2022
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])
**
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** The high court has ruled in favour of the race and equality thinktank Runnymede Trust in a decision about whether former UK health secretary Matt Hancock complied with public sector equality duties when he appointed the Conservative peer Dido Harding as head of the National Institute for Health Protection. The court rules that Hancock had not complied with the equality duties. Runnymede Trust was also challenging the appointment of Mike Coupe as director of testing at NHS test and trace. In both instances the court ruled in favour of Runnymede, granting a declaration to Runnymede after hearing arguments at a high court hearing in December 2021.
Jason Coppel QC, who led Runnymede’s legal team, told the court that the government had a “policy or practice” of “making appointments to posts critical to the pandemic response” without adopting any, or any sufficient, “fair or open competitive processes”. Coppel said people “less likely to be known or connected to decision-makers” were put at a disadvantage.
In a joint statement, Dr Halima Begum, the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, and Sir Clive Jones, the chair of Runnymede’s board of trustees, said: “Neither Baroness Harding nor Mr Coupe is medically trained. Neither has a lifetime of public administration under their belt. It should not be acceptable to drop our standards during complex health emergencies when countless lives are at stake, in particular the lives of some of our country’s most vulnerable citizens.”
------------------------------------------------------------
** Source: The Guardian, 15 February 2022
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])
** International
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** A TIME investigation reveals how tobacco giant Altria has been funding substance-use-prevention training for school students in the US despite research showing that industry-sponsored school programs do not discourage teenagers from smoking and may in fact be counter-productive.
For more than a decade Altria has provided funding to support the University of Colorado Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence’s (CSPV) implementation of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program, which teaches US school students tools to avoid substance use, violence, and other risky behaviors. When asked about it by TIME this month, Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, said he did not know that the program was funded by Altria.
Big Tobacco brands have for decades funded youth-smoking prevention programs. Cheryl Healton, dean of the New York University School of Global Public Health, says that it allows tobacco firms to “position [themselves] as part of the solution” to underage smoking without really changing their business. R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard ran or funded youth anti-smoking programs in the 1990s and early 2000s and in 2019 e-cigarette company Juul was criticised by Congress for paying a small number of schools to implement an anti-vaping curriculum developed by company consultants.
Some research suggests that industry-funded education programs are counter-productive. A 2002 study co-authored by Healton found that children exposed to Big Tobacco’s programmes viewed the tobacco industry more favorably than those who were not. In 2006, a study drawing on internal tobacco-industry assessments found little evidence that the Botvin program reduced youth smoking. Critics say that if the industry were truly interested in tackling youth smoking, it would support measures like increasing the price of cigarettes and eliminating flavoured products.
------------------------------------------------------------
** Source: TIME, 14 February 2022
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])
**
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** Swissinfo investigates why it took the Swiss so long to vote in favour of banning tobacco advertising aimed at young people, bringing laws into line with most other countries in Europe.
Swissinfo says that beyond the presence of tobacco companies in Switzerland, the issue is influence, lobbying, and a “notorious permeability between private interests and politicians”. On the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index, which measures efforts by governments to address tobacco industry interference, Switzerland ranks 79 out of 80 countries. There is substantial conflict of interest in Switzerland, with the tobacco industry able to participate in policymaking, for example through financing candidates or parties, or untransparently partnering with public officials.
In practice, the tobacco industry exerts influence more discreetly. According to Lobbywatch, only one elected representative has a direct and explicit link with the tobacco industry, right-wing Swiss People’s Party politician Gregor Rutz, who chairs Swiss Tobacco, an umbrella association of Swiss tobacco companies. But politicians often use the accredited persons system, in which parliamentarians can grant two people of their choice unlimited access to parliament, to select professional lobbyists with tobacco companies among their clients. Two MPs from the centre-right Radical Liberal Party have accredited the general secretaries of Swiss Tabac and Swiss Cigarette.
The tobacco industry is also supported by influential “generalist” organisations that defend the interests of the business community, like Swiss business federation ‘economiesuisse’, the Swiss Union of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, and the Alliance of Businesses for a Moderate Prevention Policy. According to the investigation, these organisations have around 40 ties with parliament. The value of the tobacco industry to the Swiss economy also plays a role, with a 2017 study showing that tobacco accounted for more than 6,000 jobs and around 1% of the economy.
------------------------------------------------------------
**
------------------------------------------------------------
** Source: Swiss Info, 14 February 2022
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Article ([link removed])
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here. ([link removed])
For more information email
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]) or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk ([link removed])
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.
============================================================
Our mailing address is:
Action on Smoking and Health
Unit 2.9, The Foundry
17 Oval Way
London
SE11 5RR
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
