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An editorial in the Guardian highlights a 38% increase in child poverty rates in the North East and criticises the lack of Government policy in response. This comes as researchers from the End Child Poverty coalition of charities also registered similar increases in other parts of the UK, including Wales and parts of the South East, finding that in total, 3.6 million UK children are defined as being in poverty.
The writers state that a large number of people in the North East have “yet to transition to universal credit from the previous system”, meaning that the temporary £20 weekly uplift in universal credit payments during the pandemic passed the region by. The writers describe the predicted rise in the energy price cap in October as “a cliff-edge to watch out for”.
“Short-term fixes are obviously not adequate to the task,” they write, as councils, food banks and even supermarket chain Asda announce support for families during the school holidays.
Dominant government discussions tell a different story of the UK, they state: “Last week the Conservative peer Lady Stroud launched a commission aimed at formulating a cross-party poverty strategy, and said the issue would define the next general election. On current showing, her party’s leadership election seems more likely to be defined by its absence, as candidates make wild promises of tax cuts that are more like threats to the millions of people whose prospects depend not only on benefit levels but also on public investment in education, health and transport. Levelling up was the new vocabulary of Boris Johnson’s government for the old challenge of disadvantage. It looks as though his successor may be as unfit as he was to meet it.”
Source: Guardian, 12 July 2022
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John Britton, Emeritus professor of epidemiology at the University of Nottingham and former consultant in respiratory medicine, writes to The Times regarding the plans for a new “powerhouse” research institute, a joint venture between Cambridge University and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust:
“Sir,
The cardiovascular and lung disease specialists being brought together to search for treatments for some of the world’s biggest causes of premature death (report, Jul 11) could make a productive start by persuading the government to implement, in full, the recommendations of Javed Khan’s independent review into tobacco control. Smoking is by far the biggest preventable cause of cardiovascular and lung disease in the UK and throughout the rich world. Preventing smoking, and the more than 70,000 deaths that smoking causes every year in England alone, doesn’t require more research. It requires the government to face down the tobacco industry and its apologists, and act.”
Source: Times letters, 12 July 2022
See also: The Times - Research and treatment brought under one pioneering roof
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Concerns have been raised about the number of people smoking outside the entrance to Wrexham Maelor Hospital. All hospital grounds across the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board became smoke free in 2021, resulting in a £100 fine for anyone smoking on the premises. However, in recent weeks concerned visitors and patients have become increasingly frustrated at the number of discarded cigarette butts outside the revolving doors of the hospital underneath the 'no smoking' signpost. It led to a debate on the Wrexham Town Matters Facebook page.
In response, Hazel Davies, Director of Operations at Wrexham Maelor Hospital said: “Wrexham Maelor along with all our hospital grounds across North Wales are entirely smoke-free sites. This means patients, visitors and staff are not permitted to smoke anywhere on the hospital grounds. This includes all outdoor areas, including car parks [...] Anyone who smokes on our sites is breaking the law and could face a £100 fine. We urge all our patients, visitors and staff to adhere to the smoking ban in place to create a safer and healthier environment where people are not exposed to secondhand smoke.”
Source: Leader Live, 12 July 2022
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Offering intensive, weekly telephone-based cessation counselling along with nicotine replacement for people who smoke and who were undergoing screening for lung cancer resulted in over a two-fold greater cigarette quit rate compared to people who received minimal counselling and nicotine replacement, according to results of a national, randomised trial conducted by investigators at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues. The findings were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI).
In a trial of over 800 people with a 20-plus pack year smoking history, patients at eight lung screening sites nationwide were randomly assigned to either intensive phone counselling of eight 20-minute sessions along with up to eight weeks of nicotine patches, or three counselling sessions and two weeks of patches, similar to what many state tobacco quitlines currently offer people who call seeking assistance with quitting.
During the counselling sessions, tobacco treatment specialists discussed smoking cessation goals, nicotine patch use, strategies to address triggers for smoking, readiness to quit, and confidence and motivation to quit.
Self-reported 3-month quit rates were significantly higher in the intensive vs. minimal groups (14.3% vs. 7.9%). Importantly, quit rates that were verified by saliva strips or carbon monoxide tests were lower but with similar relative differences between groups (9.1% vs. 3.9%) of about two to one. Compared to the minimal arm, the intensive arm was more effective at spurring cessation among people with greater nicotine dependence (about a 3.5-times-greater benefit), normal screening results (over a 2.5-times-greater benefit), high engagement in counselling (a 3-times greater benefit) and patch use (a nearly 3-times greater use).
Source: MedicalXpress, 12 July 2022
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University of Otago researchers, Philip Pattemore and Richard Edwards wrote to The Lancet to express concerns over a conflict of interest present in a previous Lancet publication, authored by Derek Yach, President and CEO of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, a non-profit entity funded by tobacco industry giant Philip Morris International (PMI).
The authors express concern that the publication of the Yach correspondence would legitimise the views of someone strongly aligned with the tobacco industry. They state that “the conflict of interest appears to be reflected in the content of the letter”.
The authors criticise Yach’s “characterisation of vaping products and heated tobacco products (HTPs) as being equivalents within the same family of products” and state that this “is a narrative that PMI, which dominates the market in HTPs, is strongly advocating”. They also challenge the implication that “HTPs have made an important contribution to recent declines in smoking prevalence in the UK”, observing that “use of HTPs in the general population and among smokers in the UK is very low, and hence these products are very unlikely to have made any substantial contribution to changes in smoking prevalence in the UK”. The authors also highlight the lack of evidence to support the use of HTPs for smoking cessation and state that HTPs are likely to be “more harmful to long-term users than e-cigarettes.”
They question the Lancet’s policy on “appraising and publishing letters and research papers from authors and researchers who display a conflict of interest with the tobacco industry” and conclude that the journal should review whether it’s policy is “being implemented effectively”.
Source: Lancet, 11 July 2022
See also:
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The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has appointed James Morris, Conservative MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, West Midlands, as the new minister for primary care — a role that usually holds responsibility for community pharmacy.
In the reshuffle, Maria Caulfield, who was parliamentary under secretary of state (minister for patient safety and primary care) from September 2021 to July 2022, was appointed as minister of state at the DHSC on 7 July 2022. Morris was appointed as parliamentary under secretary of state in her place on 8 July 2022, with the DHSC confirming his remit on 11 July 2022.
Morris has a limited voting record on health issues but has chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health and sat on the Communities and Local Government Select Committee during his time in parliament. He was previously a government whip between 14 February 2020 and 8 July 2022 and assistant government whip from 29 July 2019 to 14 February 2020.
Source: Pharmaceutical Journal, 11 July 2022
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