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** 9 August 2022
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** UK
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** Dying for a smoke? (#1)
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** One in 25 heart attack deaths in north-east of England "preventable in London" (#2)
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** Smoking cessation program linked to lung cancer screening achieves 30% abstinence rates (#3)
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** Worcester shop loses licence after selling fake cigarettes (#4)
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** International
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** Study: Older age and smoking deemed most important risk factors for any type of cancer (#5)
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** USA: Researcher discusses impact of raising age limit to buy tobacco products (#6)
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** UK
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** Dying for a smoke?
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**
Following his new documentary, Tobacco and Me, journalist Peter Taylor reflects on his career spent exposing the harms of cigarette smoking and exploitative tactics employed by the tobacco industry.

Writing for the Radio Times, Taylor recalls his first documentary on the harms of smoking, Dying for a Fag, which was produced in the 1970s. In the documentary, Taylor interviewed a hospital patient with terminal lung cancer due to heavy smoking. Taylor notes the powerful moment in which the patient urged Taylor’s wife not to “make the same mistake” he had. Dying for a Fag was followed by Taylor’s next documentary, Death in the West, which focused on the impact of smoking in communities of cowboys in America. Death in the West included an interview with executives of Philip Morris International (PMI), producer of Marlboro cigarettes. After the documentary was aired for the first time, PMI ordered an injunction, preventing the documentary from ever being aired again.

Now, Taylor discusses the future of “alternative” nicotine-containing products heralded by tobacco companies such as PMI’s new “heat not burn” product, IQOS.

However, Deborah Arnott, executive director ASH, argues: “I don’t trust the tobacco industry. There’s evidence that they deceived and misled people about cigarettes for decades. IQOS is just as addictive as smoking.”

Ann McNeill, Professor of Tobacco Addiction at King’s College London, shares the scepticism about the new “heat not burn” products. “It’s in the tobacco industry’s interests to make them as addictive as possible so that they can keep their consumers using them.”

Taylor concludes that “in my 50 years as a journalist I’ve seen both smoking and Northern Ireland dramatically change. Both are still a work in progress.”

Source: Radio Times, 9 August 2022

Tobacco and Me ([link removed] ) airs on BBC Radio 4 at 8pm, this Saturday, 13 August.
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** Note: The article summarised above is available for subscribers of the Radio Times.
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** One in 25 heart attack deaths in north-east of England "preventable in London"

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** One in 25 people who die of a heart attack in the north-east of England could have survived if the average cardiologist effectiveness was raised to the London level, research shows.

The research, undertaken by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), looked at the record of over 500,000 NHS patients in the UK, over 13 years. It highlights the stark “postcode lottery” of how people living in some parts of the country have access to lower quality healthcare.

The results found that while cardiologists treating patients in London and the south-east had the best survival rates among heart attack patients, patients being treated in the north-east and east of England had the worst.

The research also revealed a divide between rural and urban areas of England, with patients living in the former typically receiving treatment from less effective doctors compared with those in more urban areas.

George Stoye, an associate director at the IFS and the author of the research, said: “A key tenet of the NHS is to provide equal access to care for those with equal needs. However, this research shows that patients living in different parts of the country do not have access to the same quality of care. This means that patients living in certain areas – particularly in the north-east and the east of England – receive, on average, worse care than patients living in other areas. However, even doctors working at the same hospital deliver very different outcomes.”

Charmaine Griffiths, the chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Where heart attack patients live shouldn’t determine the quality of the treatment and care that they receive.” […]

“At a time when demand on the NHS has never been greater, we urgently need a fully funded cardiovascular care strategy. Government must ensure that there are enough heart doctors and nurses who have the tools they need to provide patients with the best care, wherever they are.”

Source: The Guardian, 9 August 2022
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** Smoking cessation program linked to lung cancer screening achieves 30% abstinence rates

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** Patients with lung cancer who attended a lung cancer screening event and who then participated in a personalized smoking cessation study achieved smoking abstinence rates of more than 30 percent, according to research presented yesterday at the IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer 2022 in Vienna.

Many participants who undergo lung cancer screening continue to smoke and while screening offers a teachable moment for smoking cessation, there is little data to demonstrate what approach to smoking cessation is most effective.

To test the effectiveness of a personalised smoking cessation intervention, the Yorkshire Enhanced Stop Smoking (YESS) trial offered stop smoking support on an opt-out basis to all eligible smokers attending a lung health check event, which included low-dose CT screening.

The double-blind randomized controlled trial compared an enhanced, personalised smoking cessation support program with continued standard best practice.

The primary outcome was seven-day point prevalent (self-reported) carbon monoxide validated cessation three-months after the lung health check (LHC) event and two-months after recruitment into the YESS trial.

Validated seven-day abstinence rates were 34 % in the intervention group and 30% in the control group at 3 months post-LHC, and 29% and 29% at 12 months post LHC. Subgroup analyses indicated a significant gender interaction at 3 and 12 months.

Author, Professor Rachael Murray, of the University of Nottingham, said: "The presence of a co-located stop smoking service and offer of immediate, opt-out delivery of behavioural and pharmacological support for quitting results in a high uptake by people who smoke and attended a lung screening event".

"Quit rates were considerably higher three-months after the lung health check regardless of adding the personalized intervention, reinforcing the need for continued support", Murray concluded.

A preliminary date for publication of full results is December 2022.
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**
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** Source: Medical Xpress, 8 August 2022
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** See also: BMJ Open - Yorkshire Enhanced Stop Smoking (YESS) study: a protocol for a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effect of adding a personalised smoking cessation intervention to a lung cancer screening programme ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed] )


** Worcester shop loses licence after selling fake cigarettes
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**
A Worcester shopkeeper caught selling £10,000 worth of counterfeit cigarettes has had his licence revoked.

The shopkeeper was caught selling counterfeit cigarettes and rolling tobacco at International Market in Lowesmoor during investigations by Trading Standards and West Mercia Police.

Some 884 packets of cigarettes and 124 pouches of hand rolling tobacco were seized, with a total street value of over £4,000.

Had the products been genuine, the retail value would have been in excess of £10,000.

The shopkeeper was given a 12-month community order with 250 hours of unpaid work when he appeared in front of Worcester magistrates on 8 April. He was also ordered to pay costs of £3,500. And on 28 June, members of Worcester City Council’s licensing subcommittee voted to revoke the licence for the premises.

Source: Worcester News, 8 August 2022
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**
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** International
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** Study: Older age and smoking deemed most important risk factors for any type of cancer
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**
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** Although numerous studies of individual cancer risk factors exist, data on the incidence of all types of cancer are rare. A study conducted by the American Cancer Society has found that older age and smoking were the most prominent risk factors for the relative and absolute 5-year risk of all types of cancer.

Results are based on two prospective cohort studies carried out among 429,991 individuals with no prior cancer history. Individuals were followed-up for five years during which 15,226 invasive cancers were diagnosed.

Nearly all individuals studied aged 50 or older and current or former smokers had an absolute five-year risk of cancer greater than 2%.

In addition to being older (50 years or older) and being a current or former smoker, other risk factors for women include high body mass index (BMI), type 2 diabetes, hysterectomy, previous pregnancies, and family history of cancer. history, and hypertension, tubal ligation and physical inactivity. Additional risk factors for men were alcohol consumption, family history of cancer, red meat consumption, and physical inactivity.

Overall, the researchers suggest that identified individuals may benefit from enhanced cancer screening and prevention efforts.

Source: The Hill, 5 August 2022
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** See also: American Cancer Society - Key risk factors for the relative and absolute 5-year risk of cancer to enhance cancer screening and prevention ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed])


** USA: Researcher discusses impact of raising age limit to buy tobacco products
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**
In 2016, the City of Cleveland raised the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21. The legislation, known as Tobacco 21, is now in effect and, according to research by Case Western Reserve University's Prevention Research Centre for Healthy Neighbourhoods (PRCHN), is already creating a healthier future for Clevelanders.

Led by Erika Trapl, director of the PRCHN and associate professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, the researchers conducted a study looking at tobacco use rates in high school students from 2013 to 2019 to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy.

The study used data collected from the Youth Risk Behaviour Survey (YRBS), a survey given every other year to middle and high schoolers in Cuyahoga County to track risky behaviours and potential protective factors over time.

The study found that prevalence of the most common form of current tobacco use among the study sample, cigars , declined following implementation of Tobacco 21 legislation. In addition, there was a substantial reduction in the disparities among racial and ethnic populations across all tobacco product use types.

Trapl said: "I hope we recognize that policy can be a strong lever for public health. And in this case, this policy was developed (by) and came from the community."

Trapl told Medical Xpress that the research team will likely now turn its focus to pending national legislation on the banning of all flavoured tobacco products.

Source: Medical Xpress, 8 August 2022
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** See also - JAMA Network - Evaluation of Restrictions on Tobacco Sales to Youth Younger Than 21 Years in Cleveland, Ohio, Area ([link removed])
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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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