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** 16 February 2022
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** UK
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** Mixed reaction to potential vaping ad ban in Scotland (#1)
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** Two glasses of wine enough to hit daily sugar limit (#2)
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** COVID-19 impact in poorer areas of England and Wales 'worse than first thought' (#3)
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** International
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** US: Altria says judge has dismissed lawsuit over Juul investment (#4)
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** Florida: new beach smoking bill ready for Senate floor (#5)
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** UK
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** The Scottish Grocers’ Federation has said that plans to ban the promotion of vaping products in Scotland’s shops risks hindering efforts to encourage smokers to take up vaping to help achieve the Scottish Government’s ambition of a smokefree generation by 2034. Scottish ministers are currently consulting on proposals to restrict the promotion and advertising of vaping products.

The consultation is on restrictions on the advertising of vapes on billboards, bus stops, and in-store promotional displays, bringing vapes in line with cigarettes and tobacco products. The advertising of e-cigarettes is already banned in newspapers and magazines and through product placement on TV in Scotland.

Dr John Lee, head of public affairs at the Scottish Grocers’ Federation, told The Times: “There is no evidence base within the document to justify any of the proposals. It makes no sense to us at all to potentially restrict the market and these products when they can be so useful in transitioning people from tobacco and helping Scotland meet that 2034 target of a tobacco-free generation.”

ASH Scotland welcomed the proposals as “important precautionary steps” to protect the health of children, young people, and adult non-smokers in Scotland. Sheila Duffy, chief executive of the charity, said: “Curbing the advertising and promotion of recreational nicotine products is vital to protect youngsters from being encouraged to experiment and moving on to use tobacco.”
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Source: The Times, 16 February 2022
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** Research by the Alcohol Health Alliance UK has found that two glasses of wine could be enough to reach the recommended daily sugar limit for adults. The research found that some bottles had up to 59g of sugar, more than a glazed donut. The research analysed bottles of red, white, rosé, fruit, and sparkling wine from a selection of popular UK brands and found that none of them featured nutritional labels whilst calorie content was only displayed on a fifth of the bottles analysed.

Campaigners are calling for a change to the law to require bottles to carry nutritional labels and calorie contents to better inform wine drinkers about calorie and sugar levels. The NHS recommends adults consume a maximum of 30g of "free sugars" per day, including sugar in fruit juices and smoothies, or sugar added to food or drink, which the analysis showed can be reached by drinking just two medium-sized glasses of some wines. The analysis found that lower-strength wines were among those to contain the most sugar, meaning that they were not necessarily the healthiest choice.

Polling done by YouGov for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) last year (2021) found that more than 61% of the 12,000 people polled wanted calorie information on wine labels and over half wanted the amount of sugar listed. Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said: "Shoppers who buy milk or orange juice have sugar content and nutritional information right at their fingertips. But this information is not required when it comes to alcohol - a product not just fuelling obesity, but with widespread health harms and linked to seven types of cancer."
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** Source: BBC News, 16 February 2022
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** New research has found that the unequal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality have been more pronounced than previously thought. Looking at years of life lost as a measure of premature mortality rather than excess deaths, as most previous studies have considered, the research found that the north-west lost three times more years of life than the south-west during the pandemic.

The study was published in the journal PLOS Medicine and led by researchers from the University of Manchester. It measured excess deaths but focused on years of life lost attributable to COVID-19, considering both number of deaths and the age at which they occurred. It found that between March and December 2020, 1,645 years of life were lost per 100,000 of the population in the most deprived parts of England and Wales, versus only 916 years of life lost per 100,000 in the wealthiest areas.

The highest regional rate of life lost was in the north-west, where 1,550 years of life were lost per 100,000 of the population, with the north-east second worst at 1,519 and the West Midlands third at 1,475. The lowest rate was in the south-west, where 490 years of life were lost per 100,000 of the population, and then the South Central region (735) and the East of England (779). The analysis also found inequalities of age, with 11 times as many excess deaths in deprived areas compared to the most deprived areas amongst 15 to 44-year-olds and excess deaths 40% higher in 75- to 84-year-olds.
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** Source: The Guardian, 15 February 2022

See also: PLOS Medicine - Excess years of life lost to COVID-19 and other causes of death by sex, neighbourhood deprivation, and region in England and Wales during 2020: A registry-based study ([link removed])
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** International
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** US tobacco giant Altria said on Tuesday (15 February) that an administrative law judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit alleging that the company’s partnership with e-cigarette maker Juul Labs amounted to an anticompetitive agreement that hurt consumers. The decision is only a preliminary one and will be subject to review by the Federal Trade Commission and will likely be appealed.

The Federal Trade Commission had sued back in 2020 to break up Altria’s pact with Juul. Juul received legal, regulatory, and marketing assistance from Altria under the deal, with Altria able to profit from sales of Juul e-cigarettes. However, e-cigarettes represent a diminishing part of Altria’s future prospects, as Altria has cut its investment in Juul to roughly one-tenth of the initial amount, to $1.7bn (£1.25m).

The original deal with Altria and Juul came after Altria’s own attempts to enter the e-cigarette market with its product Nu Mark was quickly overtaken by startup Juul. In 2020, amidst concerns Juul’s products were particularly popular amongst high-schoolers, Juul pulled all of its flavours except menthol and tobacco from the market. The US food and Drug Administration is now deciding on whether to allow Juul’s e-cigarettes to remain on the US market.
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** Source: Independent, 16 February 2022
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** Legislation that would give counties and cities throughout Florida the power to regulate smoking in public parks was brought to the full Florida Senate on Tuesday 15 February.

Speaking in favour of the legislation, Senator Joe Gruters of Sarasota said that the bill would allow beaches to prohibit smoking, which would be a boon to tourism and the local economy. He said that banning smoking on beaches would help push Florida’s beaches up many of the most well-respected national beach rankings, which respond favourably to a prohibition on smoking.

Gruters said that he originally sought a ban which would include cigars, as this would comprehensively address concerns around secondhand smoke, but that the bill had been amended to exclude most cigars to give the bill a better chance of passing. The current legislation is now more focused on the issue of cigarette litter, and therefore also covers cigars which have plastic tips, in order to reduce the amount of single-use plastic littered from tobacco products.
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** Source: Florida Politics, 15 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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