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** 7 June 2022
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** UK
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** Children sold vape pens through social media (#1)
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** Racial disparity in cancer diagnoses via screening in England (#2)
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** International
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** Hard Rock boss confers with NJ governor on casino smoking (#3)
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** Commentary: Is a ban on menthol cigarettes a step toward health equity and social justice? (#4)
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** UK
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** Many British children are being exposed to vaping content on their social media feeds, increasingly a tool used for marketplace promotion, without the usual safeguards that protect underage buyers. Videos featuring pupils vaping in class or talking about vaping in front of teachers are circulating widely around social media sites like TikTok, with the #elfbar hashtag amassing 7 million views on TikTok.
An investigation by Vape Club, an e-cigarette supplier, uncovered 205 unofficial accounts on TikTok selling Elf Bar products, with a combined following of up to half a million under-18s. It is reported that some sellers disguised products in chocolate packaging so teenagers could hide them from parents.
It is illegal in the UK to sell nicotine products to anyone under the age of 18, but these products are easily available through online retailers such as Amazon and eBay as unauthorised merchants miscategorise them as products that do not require age verification. Industry leaders are calling for tighter regulation to crack down on illegal sales to underage youth.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH said: “Although there’s no evidence that disposable vapes are any more addictive than any other e-cigarettes, we are concerned about growing evidence of underage sales of these products and their promotion on social media such as TikTok. Every time one route is closed down another pops up. Much stronger enforcement action is needed if we are to stop these products being sold to children.”
Source: The Times, 7 June 2022
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** Black people are more than a third less likely than white people to be diagnosed with cancer via screening in England, according to the first study of its kind, prompting calls for targeted efforts to improve uptake levels.
The study of more than 240,000 cancer patients over a decade found that 8.61% of patients were diagnosed via screening. Broken down by ethnicity, the figure for white people was 8.27%, almost exactly the same as the national average, but among black people it was 5.11%. The findings suggest that black people are 38% less likely to be diagnosed via screening than white people.
Jabeer Butt, the chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation urged “Cancer screening saves lives [...] That’s why it is so important that effective outreach and culturally appropriate interventions are prioritised to reduce health inequalities.”
Source: Guardian, 6 June 2022
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** International
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** Hard Rock casino chairman Jim Allen spoke recently with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy about the "economic challenges" of banning smoking in casinos, which a bill pending for months in the state Legislature proposes.
New Jersey's current clean-air law, banning smoking in most public places, contains an exception for casinos. Though local law in Atlantic City limits smoking to no more than 20% of the casino floor.
"I don't think I was trying to change the governor's mind," Allen said. "It was a general conversation about the economic challenges of a smoking ban and the impact it would have" if one were enacted.
Tobacco control advocates say the casinos are overstating the potential economic impacts of banning smoking, predicting that customers and revenues will return after an initial adjustment period.
Gov. Murphy has said he will sign a bill banning smoking in the nine Atlantic City casinos if the Legislature passes it. A spokeswoman said on Monday that Murphy would maintain that stance, but declined further comment.
Source: Daily Mail, 6 June 2022
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Researchers at the Rutgers Centre for Tobacco Studies (CTS) discussed the significance of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal to ban menthol cigarettes. In a commentary published in JAMA Network Open, researchers marked the proposal as a step toward social justice and better health equity in the Black community, where menthol cigarettes have been heavily marketed by tobacco companies.
The FDA’s proposed product standard cites 26 research studies authored or co-authored by CTS team members. When asked about the concerns menthol cigarettes raise for public health, Cristine Delnevo, CTS director, commented that “menthol in cigarettes reduces the harshness of smoking and was associated with increased initiation, higher dependence, and lower quit success. Most Black smokers in the U.S. smoke menthol cigarettes, and data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey also show that while menthol use declined overall among youth from 2011 to 2018, there was no decline among Black and Hispanic students.”
In framing continued menthol cigarette availability as a social justice issue, CTS researcher Ollie Ganz cited a 2011 study modelling the effects of a menthol ban in the U.S. which estimated that 633,252 deaths could have been averted, and that one of three of these lives lost would be a Black person. Welcoming the recent move, he asserted that historically “inaction on menthol came down to lack of political will.”
See also: JAMA Commentary ([link removed])
Source: Medical Express, 6 June 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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