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** 19 July 2022
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** UK
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** Government crackdown on smoking and alcohol paused until next PM is chosen (#1)
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** NHS could face bill of more than £1bn to fund upcoming pay rise (#2)
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** International
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** Ireland: Measures to ban flavoured e-cigarettes welcomed by Irish Heart Foundation (#3)
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** US: NIH-funded game will pay you to quit smoking (#4)
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** Malaysia: Public health expert urges all MPs to support Tobacco and Smoking Control Bill (#5)
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** US: Tobacco companies reach deal with justice department over retail messaging (#5)
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** UK
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** Government crackdown on smoking and alcohol paused until next PM is chosen

A major drive to reduce the harm caused by smoking and alcohol use has been paused until a new prime minister is in place, ITV News understands. The White Paper on health disparities - that was due to be published this week - will now be delayed until after the summer, and only go ahead if the new Conservative leader gives it the green light.

Sources revealed that the strategy would include proposals to improve access to e-cigarettes in addition to calling for alcohol free alternatives to be more widely available in pubs.

The strategy also reportedly looked at addressing poorer health outcomes for people from certain ethnic minority groups - and to provide more funding to genomics that could result in people having treatments more personally targeted at their needs.

In recent weeks charities and other health groups have been pushing for the strategy to introduce further preventative health measures with a population wide focus. Sources said there was a risk that a future PM could drop this agenda - although pointed out that the policies had been framed as "non-nanny state" - perhaps to try to make sure it had Cabinet support. Driving down health disparities was one of Sajid Javid's biggest aims as health secretary and the subject of his first major speech in the role.

A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) source would not comment on whether the strategy had been delayed but pointed out that it was a commitment made in the Levelling Up white paper and said timing would be updated in due course. But ITV News understands that DHSC, like other Whitehall departments, - are placing several things on pause, with the government only focusing on a few new policies to go ahead before the summer recess.

Source: ITV News, 18 July 2022

See also: Khan review - Making Smoking Obsolete ([link removed])
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** NHS could face bill of more than £1bn to fund upcoming pay rise
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NHS staff look set to get a pay rise of barely half the rate of inflation, a move that will force the health service to make more than £1bn of cuts and could trigger a wave of strikes.

Senior NHS figures expect ministers to award staff an increase of between 4% and 5% when they announce later today (Tuesday 19th July) how much the public sector workers will receive in 2022-23. However, they have warned that even the higher than previously expected figure could still spark strikes, because health unions have threatened to ballot their members about possible industrial action if this year’s settlement is below inflation, which is running at 9.1%.

The government is due to unveil on Tuesday afternoon details of pay increases for a wide range of public sector workers, including judges, police officers and senior civil servants, as well as specific deals covering NHS staff, doctors and dentists and senior NHS managers. Ministers originally planned to give NHS staff an uplift of 3%. But the soaring cost of living is thought to have persuaded them to make an award of something between 4% and 5%.

The British Medical Association (BMA) made clear that it wanted the increase for medics to at least match inflation, given the real-terms erosion of their salaries in recent years.

The NHS Pay Review Body, which advises ministers, is understood to have recommended that all 1.5 million NHS staff across the UK covered by the longstanding Agenda for Change agreement – which covers everyone bar doctors and dentists – get a 5% rise. However, the government is likely to provoke a row with NHS England by refusing to cover the cost of any award over 3%, a ploy that could cost the service up to £1.8bn. Earlier this month, NHS England took the unusual step of warning publicly that any such move by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Treasury would compel it to reduce investment in key areas, including cancer and primary care.

Source: Guardian, 19 July 2022
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** International
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** Ireland: Measures to ban flavoured e-cigarettes welcomed by Irish Heart Foundation
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The Irish Heart Foundation has welcomed measures aimed at preventing young people using e-cigarettes - including plans to ban flavoured vapes. The charity lobbied extensively to have four sweeping recommendations included in a pre-legislative scrutiny report for an upcoming Bill.

The prohibition on flavouring in vapes, would mean only unflavoured or tobacco flavoured vapes are available.

In addition, the committee recommends that Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, conducts a review and assembles research on international studies that have focused on increasing the age of tobacco and nicotine-inhaling product purchase from 18 years of age to 21. Recent HSE research showed that 71% of the Irish public supports Tobacco 21 – the move to ban tobacco sales to those aged under-21.

Source: Derry Now, 18 July 2022
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** US: NIH-funded game will pay you to quit smoking
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A novel method of quitting smoking by allowing participants to wager on themselves and earn real money as part of a brand-new game called QuitBet is currently being evaluated in clinical trials. The initiative is supported by a $1.15 National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant that is being administered by scientists at Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute.

Players bet $30 on themselves, which is added to a pot and commit to stop smoking for four weeks. After that, players get a free breath testing device to monitor their daily progress. All of the players who were able to stop smoking at the end divide the pot with the other winners, winning back their original wager plus a profit. Most winners who give up smoking double their winnings.

It is an example of the “serious games” movement, which employs games to improve health. In order to make healthy behaviours exciting and interesting, serious games may take something difficult like quitting smoking and add social components like competitiveness, social support, and, in this example, financial motivation.

Principal investigator, Jamie Rosen, spoke of the problems in implementing behaviour change in a sustainable way, but that by having players self-fund their own incentives, this was resolved in QuitBet. He also highlighted how this approach addresses the often solitary and frustrating experience of quitting smoking: “Why not mix in some fun, friendly competition and the thrill of winning money? It’s a powerful new way to think about the problem. We’re finding that it really helps people get through those tough first few weeks.”

Source: SciTech Daily, 18 July 2022
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** Malaysia: Public health expert urges all MPs to support Tobacco and Smoking Control Bill
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Prof Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, former Health deputy director-general, urged all Members of Parliament to support the Tobacco and Smoking Control Bill which proposes a generational ban on tobacco and e-cigarettes. He also told political parties to declare any conflict of interest arising from funding by tobacco companies.

Dr Lokman was responding to Muda president and Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s concerns about Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s proposed legislation, claiming it would impact small retailers, remove personal liberties and would be a slippery slope to racially charged calls for the ban of other products like alcohol, and higher illicit cigarette trade.

Dr Lokman addressed each of these concerns before pointing to the likeness of Saddiq’s arguments to ones historically employed by the tobacco industry in swaying political influence and whether Muda, a new political party that represents young people, was being supported by the tobacco industry. He directly asked the party and party officials to declare any conflict of interest with the tobacco industry.

Malaysia does not yet have political financing legislation that mandates federal and state legislators or political parties to publicly name their sources of funding, including for large political contributions. In response to the public pressure, Muda is yet to declare its funding sources, though Saddiq, Muda’s sole MP, told reporters that a party official in the party’s disciplinary bureau, who is currently employed by a tobacco company, had no influence over his or Muda’s stand on the tobacco bill.

The Tobacco and Smoking Control Bill is not listed on today’s parliamentary order paper. Khairy said he would table it soon, brining the legislation to parliament, after it received Cabinet approval last week.

Source: Code Blue, 18 July 2022
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** US: Tobacco companies reach deal with justice department over retail messaging
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Major tobacco companies have come to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over tobacco-related messaging at retail, bringing a nearly two decades-long challenge to a close.

According to NACS, the agreement requires Altria, Philip Morris USA Inc., RJ Reynolds Tobacco and ITG Brands to supply court-ordered signs to stores they have contracts with and require those stores to post at least one sign carrying one of 17 different, pre-approved health messages for 21 months. These will be distributed at random to retailers around the country. Each store will be required to rotate to a new message halfway through the time period required in the agreement.

The manufacturers will be required to hire auditors to check whether the signs are properly posted, NACS added.

A hearing on the proposed agreement will be held in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 28 and 29. The court will then decide whether to accept the agreement and enter an order to implement it. The deadline for tobacco companies to comply has been pushed back several times and now stands at April 9, 2023.

Source: CS News, 18 July 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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