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** 05 April 2022
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** International
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** Study: Pre-surgery support could help elective surgery patients quit smoking (#1)
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** Sierra Leone: Smoking in indoor public places to be banned (#2)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Health and Care Bill – Lords tobacco amendments published (#3)
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** Parliamentary Questions (#4)
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** International
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** Study: Pre-surgery support could help elective surgery patients quit smoking

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** Offering mailed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and Quitline support to patients encouraged almost one-third of smokers to quit before their elective surgery, according to new research published by the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr. Ashley Webb, staff anaesthetist at Peninsula Health and Monash University, and colleagues conducted a trial at Frankston Hospital involving adult smokers added to elective surgery waiting lists for operations at least 10 days in the future, between 1 April 2019 and 3 April 2020.

In addition to normal care, participants in the intervention arm of the trial received a brochure on the risks of low frequency smoking, an offer of Quitline call-back registration, and an offer of mailed NRT (according to reported daily smoking: 1‒9 cigarettes/day, 2 mg lozenges; 10‒15/day, 7‒14 mg patches [3 weeks] and 2 mg lozenges; > 15/day, 7‒21 mg patches [5 weeks] and 2 mg lozenges).

“Of 748 eligible participants, 516 (69%) had undergone elective surgery when the trial was terminated early (for COVID-19-related reasons) ,” Webb and colleagues reported.

“122 of the 385 intervention participants (32%) had accepted the offer of cessation support. The proportions of intervention participants who quit at least 24 hours before surgery (18% v 9%) or at least four weeks before surgery (9% v 4%) were larger than for the control group.”

Webb and colleagues wrote that the risks of wound infections, cardiopulmonary complications, and higher health care costs were greater for smokers than non-smokers undergoing elective surgery, but those risks could be reduced if people quit at least four weeks before surgery.

Source: Medical Xpress, 4 April 2022

See also: The Medical Journal of Australia - Offering mailed nicotine replacement therapy and Quitline support before elective surgery: a randomised controlled trial ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed])


** Sierra Leone: Smoking in indoor public places to be banned
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**
Members of Parliament in Sierra Leone held a pre-legislative hearing on the 3rd April to discuss the ‘Tobacco and Nicotine Control Bill 2022’ which would ban smoking in indoor public places across the country.

The proposed public spaces in which smoking will be prohibited will include offices and workplaces, court buildings and factories, hospitals, clinics and other health institutions, corridors, reception areas, escalators, cinema halls, theatres, video houses, restaurants, hotels, bars and other eating places. As well as children homes , residential houses and other premises where children are taken care of, places of worship, correctional centres, police stations and cells, public service vehicles, aircrafts, passengers, educational facilities, markets, shopping malls and stadia .

World Health Organisation Project Consultant, Reynold Senesi, said that Sierra Leone should develop and implement comprehensive, multi-sectional tobacco control strategies and legislation to reduce tobacco use, nicotine addiction and exposure to tobacco smoke.

Source: allAfrica, 4 April 2022
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Health and Care Bill – Lords tobacco amendments published

The latest Tobacco Control Amendments (Amendments 85-88b) for the Health and Care Bill have been published. They can be found on pages 11-15 under Motion J. The amendments will be debated in the House of Lords today.

The tobacco amendments would require:
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** DHSC to consult on recommendations of the Khan Independent review which is due to report shortly with recommendations for the forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan to deliver the Government’s Smokefree 2030 ambition (and any other options considered appropriate by the SoS)
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** DHSC and HMT to consult on one or more statutory schemes to fund delivery of the Smokefree 2030 ambition
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** Ministerial report back to parliament within a specified time frame on steps to implement findings of the consultations with proposed timescales.
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View PDF ([link removed] )


** Parliamentary Questions

PQ1: Oral Tobacco – Cardiovascular Disease

Asked by Mary Glindon, Labour, North Tyneside.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2022 to Question 112640 on Tobacco: Mortality Rates, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the study published in the Nicotine & Tobacco Research journal in January 2022 which found that snus is not associated with cardiovascular disease.

Answered by Maggie Throup, Public Health Minister

No specific assessment has been made.

Source: Hansard, 4 April 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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