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** 04 March 2022
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** UK
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** Price cap on cigarettes would stop people taking up smoking by forcing tobacco companies to push up prices of cheaper items, experts say (#1)
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** Birmingham Erdington byelection winner is Labour’s Paulette Hamilton (#2)
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** International
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** USA: Rising oil prices could hit cigarette demand as smokers pay more at the pump (#3)
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** USA: HPV-related cancers increase in U.S. counties with low-income, high smoking prevalence (#4)
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** Links of the week
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** ASH No Smoking Day Toolkit (#5)
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** Podcast: Let's talk e-cigarettes (#6) #3
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** ASH Webinar on implementing smokefree mental health settings (#7) #3
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** UK
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** Price cap on cigarettes would stop people taking up smoking by forcing tobacco companies to push up prices of cheaper items, experts say

Researchers from the University of Bath have called for a price-cap cigarettes to limit the number of people who take up smoking. Currently tobacco companies get around tax hikes by keeping the cost of cheap cigarettes low while raising those on higher-end products, leading to a £5 difference in pack prices.

The researchers said the maximum price would drive up the price of all cigarettes, rather than just expensive ones, and put off customers.

'It would also change the profit incentive behind the sale of these deadly products,' the Bath University experts added.

The researchers also argue a price-cap should be imposed covering just production costs, with taxes and sales expenses added on top. They did not say what the cap should be set at.

ASH chief executive, Deborah Arnott, said: “These proposals are all supported by ASH, doctors organisations and health charities. That way tobacco manufacturers can be forced to fund the support smokers need to stop, rather than passing the cost on to smokers, which is what happens with tobacco taxes.”

Source: Daily Mail, 4 March 2022
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** Birmingham Erdington byelection winner is Labour’s Paulette Hamilton
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** Labour have won the byelection in Birmingham Erdington with a majority of 3,266. Paulette Hamilton will become the city’s first black MP after securing 9,413 votes, beating the Conservative candidate Robert Alden who won 6,147 votes.

In her victory speech, Hamilton said: “I’m truly humbled and honoured to be elected as a member of parliament. I will not take your vote for granted, I have met many of you and I have heard what you have to say and I commit to you now, I will work for you … I will be your voice in Westminster.”

After the result was announced, Hamilton paid tribute to the late MP Jack Dromey, saying: “He was a wonderful MP for his constituency and in the past few weeks campaigning across Erdington, Castle Vale and Kingstanding, I have heard so many stories of the difference Jack made to the people’s lives.”

Source: The Guardian, 4 March 2022
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** Editorial note: Paulette Hamilton is a member of the Smokefree Councillor Network ([link removed] ) , a cross-party group of Councillors committed to achieving comprehensive local government action on tobacco and eliminating the harm tobacco causes in our communities.
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** International
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** USA: Rising oil prices could hit cigarette demand as smokers pay more at the pump

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** Rising gas prices at the pump will likely hurt cigarette demand as smokers have less money to spend on impulse purchases while filling up, according to a new report from Barclays.
The Russian war in Ukraine has driven prices for oil higher in recent days as the U.S. and other Western countries imposed sanctions on Russia, although so far only Canada has banned its crude oil exports.

Earlier on Thursday, the US oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude futures, was trading at prices last seen in the financial crisis days of September 2008, while Brent crude hit a high from May 2012.

Barclays analyst Gaurav Jain estimated that a 1% increase in oil prices will cause US cigarette volume to slide by 0.1%. Jain compared the current spike in oil prices to their sharp decline in 2014 through 2016. In 2015, US cigarette volume turned roughly flat after shrinking in 2014.

“The trend seems to suggest that as consumers saved more money at the gas station and went to the attached convenience store, they bought more cigarettes (impulse purchase item). Now as oil prices move higher, the reverse could happen,” he wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

Source: CNBC, 3 March 2022
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** USA: HPV-related cancers increase in U.S. counties with low-income, high smoking prevalence
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**
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** A new paper in JNCI Cancer Spectrum, published by Oxford University Press, finds increases in both men and women for several HPV-related cancers in low-income US counties or those with high smoking rates. Increases were slower in the highest-income US counties or those with low smoking rates.

Researchers used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, a National Cancer Institute database that provides nationwide information on cancer statistics, to investigate HPV-associated cancers by US county-level income and smoking prevalence between 2000 and 2018.

They found that anal and vulvar cancer among women and anal cancer incidence among men increased significantly in the lowest-income counties and counties with high smoking rates, while the increases were slower in their counterparts.

Anal cancer among women increased by 5% a year for those living in high-smoking counties and only 1.9% a year for those living in lower smoking-rate counties. Vulvar cancer increased by 3.8% a year a year for those living in high-smoking counties and only 0.6% for those living in lower smoking-rate counties.
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** Source: News-Medical.Net

See also: JNCI Cancer Spectrum - Trends in the Incidence of Human Papillomavirus-Associated Cancers by County-Level Income and Smoking Prevalence in the United States, 2000-2018 ([link removed])
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**
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** Links of the Week
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** No Smoking Day 2022 Communications Toolkit

This year we’re asking everyone to focus on the message that smokers shouldn’t give up on giving up and every time they quit smoking, they’re a step closer to success. We are doing this with the voice of health professionals from around the country. The No Smoking Day 2022 toolkit includes all the resources and information needed to engage smokers on No Smoking Day and throughout March.
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**
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Link ([link removed])


** Podcast: Let's talk e-cigarettes

Assistant Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Dr Nicola Lindson discuss the emerging evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Professor Billie Bonevski. This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches.
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Listen ([link removed])


** ASH Webinar on implementing smoke free mental health settings
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** This ASH webinar focuses on the role that smokefree mental health settings can play in supporting the implementation of NHS Long Term Plan tobacco dependence treatment pathway in mental health settings.
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Watch the Webinar ([link removed])
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For more information email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or visit www.ash.org.uk
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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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