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** 17 March 2022
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** UK
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** Scotland: Smoking ban for Falkirk council staff on video calls and in their cars (#1)
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** International
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** Higher cigarette taxes reduce child deaths—first global estimates (#2) #3
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** USA: E-cigarette policies at schools may be insufficient without staff training (#3)
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** Why it’s hard to size up the Russia hit to earnings (#4)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Health and Care Bill: House of Lords report stage (#5)
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** UK
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** Scotland: Smoking ban for Falkirk council staff on video calls and in their cars
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** Smoking while on camera in virtual meetings will be forbidden for Falkirk Council staff - even if they are in their own homes.

Staff will also be told that they should not be smoking in their own cars when they are on council business.

The new rules were agreed by members of Falkirk Council's executive on Tuesday, as they agreed to update the council's smoke-free policy.

The changes suggested - and agreed by trade unions - were intended to reflect hybrid working that is common now.

Karen Algie, acting director of Transformation, Communities and Corporate Services, said: "There should be no smoking when you are representing the council in virtual meetings. Clearly if you are in your own home you can smoke and do as you wish but if you are there representing the council the policy is suggesting that you should not be smoking."

Members heard that the council's policy follows legislation passed by the Scottish Government - Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 - which prohibits smoking in certain public places and grounds including the majority of workplaces.

Source: Daily Record, 16 March 2022
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** International
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** Higher cigarette taxes reduce child deaths—first global estimates
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** The first global analysis of its kind estimates that if every country's cigarette taxes had met the World Health Organization's recommendations, around 182,000 new-born deaths could have been averted in 2018.

In total, increased cigarette taxes could have averted around 231,000 deaths of children aged under a year old in 2018 (including roughly 182,000 new-borns, according to research led by Imperial College London and Erasmus University Medical Centre and published in PLOS Global Public Health. Almost all of these averted deaths would have been in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The new study assessed the link between cigarette taxes and neonatal and infant mortality in 159 LMICs and high-income countries (HICs). It used every country's mortality and tobacco tax data from 2008-2018. The study does not look at specific causes of death associated with tobacco.

The researchers say that increasing tobacco taxes in LMICs is vital as this on average is where the lowest levels of tobacco tax are and where the biggest opportunities for child health improvements exist. The WHO recommends that tax represents more than 75% of the retail price of tobacco products, but in 2018 only 14% of the world's population lived in countries which had achieved this.

Senior study author, Dr. Filippos Filippidis, also from Imperial's School of Public Health, says: "Raising tobacco taxes has been shown to be the most effective measure to reduce smoking, but most research is only in adults or high-income countries. Past studies from high-income countries have found that increasing tobacco taxes reduces preterm birth rates, asthma exacerbations and child deaths, but until now it was not clear if these findings can be applied to low- and middle-income countries where there is lower awareness of tobacco-related harm, and the influence of the tobacco industry is stronger and might suppress the positive effects of raising taxes."

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** Source: Medical Xpress, 16 March 2022
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** See also: PLoS Global Public Health - Cigarette taxation and neonatal and infant mortality: A longitudinal analysis of 159 countries ([link removed])
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** USA: E-cigarette policies at schools may be insufficient without staff training
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** A new analysis supports implementation of school policies to boost staff awareness of and intervention in e-cigarette use among students but suggests that training on such policies is necessary to boost their effectiveness. Minal Patel of Schroeder Institute at Truth Initiative in Washington, D.C., and colleagues present findings in the journal PLOS ONE on March 16, 2022.

Dr. Patel and colleagues analysed survey responses from 1,480 teachers and administrators who worked in U.S. middle schools and high schools in November and December of 2018. The survey asked staff to report their schools' e-cigarette policies and related training, as well as their experiences with implementing such efforts.

Most staff reported that their schools had implemented e-cigarette policies, but fewer than half reported having been trained on such policies.

In line with prior studies, this study suggests that school e-cigarette policies alone may be insufficient without accompanying efforts to train staff on implementing such policies, including fostering continued awareness of the evolving landscape of e-cigarette products.

Source: Medical Xpress, 16 March 2022

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** See also: PLoS One - E-cigarette school policy and staff training: Knowledge and school policy experiences with e-cigarette products among a national sample of US middle and high school staff ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed] )


** Why it’s hard to size up the Russia hit to earnings
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** Former corporate lawyer, Cat Rutter Pooley, shares her opinion on the direct and indirect impacts of companies abandoning operations in Russia:

Most UK companies only source a small portion of their revenues from Russia or Ukraine. Disclosure tends to be poor. For several of those that have spelt it out in recent weeks, the figures have often been tiny. When retailers Boohoo and JD Sports announced they were suspending sales, it meant sacrificing 0.1 per cent and 0.05 per cent of revenues respectively. At advertising group WPP, Russia accounted for 0.6 per cent of revenues less pass-through costs last year.

There are companies for which the hit has been more meaningful. Asos generated 4 per cent of sales and £20mn of last year’s profit from Russia. Twenty per cent of revenues and operating profits at one of Coke’s largest bottlers, Coca-Cola HBC, came from the two countries last year: it has pulled guidance. And the two UK tobacco giants both trimmed guidance over the past week after unveiling plans to transfer ownership of their local operations. British American Tobacco took a percentage point off its revenue growth target and knocked a couple off its earnings growth estimate despite only 3 per cent of sales coming from the region.

The challenge for investors will be disentangling what can rightly be attributed to the inflationary impact of the conflict, and where companies use these to conceal broader margin problems in their business.

Source: Financial Times, 17 March 2022
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Health and Care Bill: House of Lords report stage
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** Yesterday, 16 March, Peers voted 213 to 154 to require the Government to consult on a ‘polluter pays’ fund to deliver a Smokefree2030. Amendment 158, moved by Lord Crisp and supported by Lord Faulkner of Worcester, Lord Rennard, and Lord Young of Cookham, would require the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to carry out a consultation about a statutory scheme for the regulation of prices and profits of tobacco manufacturers and importers. Funds raised by the scheme would be used to pay for the cost of tobacco control measures to deliver the Government’s ultimatum for industry to make smoked tobacco obsolete by 2030 and for England to be smoke-free with smoking rates 5% or below.

Lord Crisp argued that the measures were necessary for the Government to hit their Smokefree by 2030 target. Speaking for the Labour opposition, Baroness Merron supported the “wholly pragmatic” measures and said greater action was needed. Speaking for the Liberal Democrats, Baroness Walmsley supported the amendments, and expressed concern that “by being so slow, the UK Government are undermining the ability of the devolved Administrations to achieve their smoke-free ambitions.” Responding for the Government, Earl Howe argued that the tobacco industry were already subject to significant tax contributions, and said the proposal would be too complex to implement. The amendment was agreed at division by 213 contents to 154.

Source: Hansard, 16 March 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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