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** 25 May 2022
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** UK
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** Gloucestershire trading standards operation uncovers tobacco haul (#1)
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** Godfrey Fowler obituary (#2)
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** Novara Media podcast on David Canzini and Lynton Crosby (#3)
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** International
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** Hans Stöckli receives World No Tobacco Day award (#4)
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** Experts react to study claiming e-cigarette use costs US $15 billion per year (#5)
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** UK
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Illicit tobacco with a street value of more than £30,000 has been seized by Trading Standards officers. 4,465 packs of cigarettes and 806 pouches of hand rolling tobacco were found under floorboards of a house in Gloucester by police. No duty had been paid on the tobacco, evading more than £55,000 in tax.
Trading Standards believed the cigarettes were part of an organised supply chain supporting sales of illicit tobacco, costing the UK taxpayer a total of £2.3bn a year.
Inspector Si Motala, from the Gloucester Neighbourhood Policing Team, said "This is not just a case of taking cheap tobacco off the streets. […] We know that illegal tobacco is often used to fund organised crime, which can have a significant impact on our communities. I hope this warrant shows that we will work with our partners, including Trading Standards, to disrupt those who are involved in this line of criminality."
Source: BBC, 24 May 2022
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Godfrey Fowler, who has died aged 90, was a leading and reforming family doctor for 30 years; he was warm, modest and convivial. For much of his career he also headed a department of medical general practice at Oxford University, training students and undertaking research into preventive medicine.
He was founding clinical reader in the new department from 1978, having been persuaded to take this role by Sir Richard Doll, then regius professor of medicine. The department became what is now the large and successful Nuffield department of primary care sciences. His research focused on preventive medicine and improving primary care, especially in the transfer of chronic disease from hospitals to the community, exploring the effect and cost-effectiveness of such changes. He sought better ways of helping smokers to stop and to help people adopt healthy eating habits. He also investigated the effects of GP-conducted health checks and advice on cardiovascular disease and cancer risk; another study examined “shared care” records in patients newly diagnosed with cancer.
Source: The Guardian, 21 April 2022
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The podcast discusses Boris Johnson’s newly appointed key adviser, David Canzini, and his cosy relationship and distinct similarities to Lynton Crosby, in relation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resistance to imposing windfall taxes on the Oil and Gas Industry. The podcast’s co-host Aaron Bastani details Crosby’s relentless focus on ‘wedge’ issues that the Conservatives can use to delineate themselves from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
In 2013 Crosby’s private lobbying efforts led to policy on plain packaging for cigarettes being dropped from the Queen’s Speech. This neatly coincided with Crosby’s firm securing a lucrative contract with Philip Morris International, the largest tobacco company globally.
Source: Novara Media, 24 May 2022
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See also:
The Times - David Canzini: the key player in Westminster you’ve never heard of ([link removed])
Tobacco Tactics – Lynton Crosby ([link removed])
Read Article ([link removed])
** International
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The Bernese State Councillor SP Hans Stöckli received the “World No Tobacco Day” award from the World Health Organization yesterday in Brussels, for his commitment to tackling tobacco advertising in Switzerland.
Stöckli was at the forefront of the referendum campaign to ban tobacco advertising in the country and the popular initiative “Children without tobacco” initiative, which saw tobacco advertising banned in Switzerland by a referendum vote earlier this year.
World No Tobacco Day is a WHO campaign to raise awareness of the social, economic and health impacts of tobacco use on 31^st May. The theme for this year's World No Tobacco Day is "Tobacco: Threat to our environment".
Source: UK Time News, 24 May 2022
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A study by researchers at the UC San Francisco School of Nursing claiming the use of electronic cigarettes costs the United States $15 billion annually in health care expenditures (at a yearly rate of $2,024 more for e-cigarette users versus a person using no tobacco products) has been challenged by the academic community.
The Science Media Centre has issued an expert response: Prof Jamie Brown, Professor of Behavioural Science and Health and Director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group at University College London, said “These results appear to be based on two key assumptions. First, that the identified associations between e-cigarette use and poor health status are caused by e-cigarettes. The majority of people who use e-cigarettes are also former or current cigarette smokers. Despite the attempts at adjustment, it is likely that at least some of the association is actually caused by cigarettes.
“The second assumption appears to be that the alternative is simply that these people would not be using e-cigarettes. However, we know that e-cigarettes help people to quit smoking cigarettes and that cigarette smoking causes enormous healthcare expenditure. Therefore, the key question is what is the net impact on healthcare utilisation, when trying to account for how e-cigarettes affect how many people smoke cigarettes? These types of models have tended to suggest net benefits are likely.”
Prof Peter Hajek, Director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London, said: “This is a baffling piece of work. The authors report that people who use e-cigarettes have poorer health and incur higher health costs than non-smokers, but it is not clear why they assume that the excess health expenditure incurred by smokers who are trying to limit their smoking by using e-cigarettes (often because of acute health problems) is caused by their recent vaping rather than by their lifetime smoking. This is like claiming that the extra health expenditure incurred by people with broken legs is caused by using crutches.”
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Sources: SCIENMAG, 24 May 2022 ([link removed]) and Science Media Centre, 25 May 2022 ([link removed])
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