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** 24 February 2022
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** UK
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** Comment: Britain needs more than willpower to shake off addictions to fags, booze, junk food and ‘chillaxing’ (#1)
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** Thousands of illegal cigarettes and tobacco worth £45,000 seized in the North East (#2)
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** International
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** Secret pacts between tobacco companies and retailers are a bad bargain for public health (#3)
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** USA: New Jersey Casino Association claims smoking ban would spark 2,500 job losses (#4)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions (#5)
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** UK
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** Comment: Britain needs more than willpower to shake off addictions to fags, booze, junk food and ‘chillaxing’

Writing in the Telegraph, Lord Bethell, Conservative peer and former Minister for Innovation at DHSC responds to the recent Health Foundation review, ‘Addressing the leading risk factors for ill health’.

Lord Bethell highlights the link between health inequalities and more severe outcomes from COVID-19 in more disadvantaged groups. He argues that the Health Foundation report “makes an overwhelming intellectual case for addressing Britain’s health inequalities,” and states that “hundreds of millions of years of life can be saved.”

However, Lord Bethell is critical of the report’s “political analysis”, arguing that the failure to address health inequalities are not due to a lack of political leadership, but instead are due to “Britain’s political and cultural landscape that creates the short-termism and negativity described in the report.”

He suggests that to combat this political and cultural landscape, we need a generational commitment to a ‘Healthy Britain’ that is rooted in reliable financial analysis, cross-governmental responsibility, a campaign approach which appeals to all British demographics and, finally, a political framing that moves away from a sense of depriving people of enjoyment.

Source: The Telegraph, 23 Feb 2022

See also: The Health Foundation - Addressing the leading risk factors for ill health ([link removed])

Editorial note: Lord Bethell served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care from March 2020 until September 2021, during which time he was responsible for NHS Test and Trace. In November 2021, it emerged ([link removed]) that Lord Bethell had been part of a government meeting with Randox, the clinical diagnostics firm for which Owen Paterson was found to have breached parliamentary standards, regarding a £600 million contract in which, against protocol, no minutes were taken. His wife, Melissa Bethell, is a Non-Executive Director ([link removed]) of the alcohol distributor Diageo plc.
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** Thousands of illegal cigarettes and tobacco worth £45,000 seized in the North East
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** £45,000 worth of illegal cigarettes and rolling tobacco have been sniffed out and seized by North Tyneside Council’s Trading Standards team and Northumbria Police in a joint operation. Based on intelligence received, six stores in North Tyneside were visited on Wednesday 9 February.

It formed part of Operation CeCe, a National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC to tackle the sale of illegal tobacco. In total, 3,608 cigarette packets and 380 50g rolling tobacco pouches were seized from four premises.

Cocker Spaniel Yoyo and red Labrador Cooper are specially trained to detect tobacco and the pair sniffed the haul out. Some items are often in hidden concealments, and during this operation cigarettes were hidden in a fridge freezer.

Cllr Carole Burdis, cabinet member for Community Safety and Public Protection, said: “We’re committed to taking action against the sale of illegal tobacco - it disadvantages genuine businesses and creates a cheap source of tobacco that can support smoking, particularly in the young.

“It’s great news that, through our close partnership with Northumbria Police, that we’ve managed to take these illegal goods off the streets.”

Source: Chronical Live, 24 Feb 2022
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** International
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** Secret pacts between tobacco companies and retailers are a bad bargain for public health
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** A new study by the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, has found that tobacco companies incentivise retailers around the world to give their products primary placement in stores, discount their pricing and target specific demographics. This undermines ongoing public health efforts to decrease tobacco use, especially in settings where products are easily accessible.

The review examined studies conducted between 1991 and 2020 on the elusive contracts between retailers and tobacco companies and is the first systematic review of research on this topic from countries across the globe.

The study found tobacco contracts to be highly prevalent and often unavoidable, with retailers participating in them to keep their business financially viable. Contract requirements targeted the retail setting through the "Four Ps" common in marketing practice: placement, promotion, price and product.

Many stores were also required to meet an agreed-upon sales volume or frequency, increasing retailers' desire to push a large number of tobacco products. This involved representatives from the tobacco company visiting retailers, often unannounced or under the guise of a mystery shopper, to directly manage the placement and promotion of tobacco in the store. Some contracts even required store clerks to verbally promote and recommend specific products to customers.

To reduce the harm caused by these contracts, the researchers suggest that lawmakers and public health officials implement policies banning them outright, along with buydowns, advertising and tactics that allow tobacco companies to exploit loopholes in wholesale advertising regulations. Studies examining existing policies that ban these contracts have shown that supplemental policies and enforcement of compliance may also be necessary.

Source: Medical Xpress, 23 Feb 2022

See also: Tobacco Control - Tobacco company agreements with tobacco retailers for price discounts and prime placement of products and advertising: a scoping review ([link removed])
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** USA: New Jersey Casino Association claims smoking ban would spark 2,500 job losses
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** A report published by the gambling research firm Spectrum Gaming Group and commissioned by the Casino Association of New Jersey has claimed that banning smoking in casinos would hurt their business.

A group of Atlantic City casino workers, aided by national non-smoking groups, has been pushing for over a year for New Jersey to close the loophole in its public smoking law that allows it to continue in casinos; it is banned in most other indoor spaces.

Smoking is allowed on 25 per cent of the casino floor in Atlantic City. The casinos claim that banning it would send smokers fleeing to neighbouring Pennsylvania, where many casinos allow smoking.

Source: Daily Mail, 23 Feb 2022
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** PQ 1:
Asked by Andrew Rosindell, Romford

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will direct the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ next annual review of vaping and tobacco harm reduction in England to focus on the potential role of tobacco-free oral nicotine pouches in helping smokers to quit.

Answered by Maggie Throup, Public Health Minister

The next Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Vaping in England annual report will include data on the use of nicotine pouches amongst adults and youth. It will not, however, focus on the potential role of nicotine pouches in smoking cessation.

Plans for reviewing the wider evidence base for nicotine pouches are being considered.

Source: Hansard, 21st Feb 2022
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