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UK study: Public call for tougher restrictions on buying tobacco in Britain
People in Britain strongly support restricting the sale of tobacco near schools and raising the legal age of sale to 21, finds a new University College London-led study.
In collaboration with The University of Edinburgh and Cardiff University, the research, published in Tobacco Control, examined data from the Cancer Research UK and SPECTRUM*-funded Smoking Toolkit Study, which has surveyed approximately 1,700 adults each month from England since 2006, and 2,200 adults each month from England, Scotland and Wales, since 2020. The researchers examined data from September 2021, which asked participants about their views on potential policies targeting the availability of tobacco and cigarettes.
The results indicated that most of those surveyed supported retailers having their licence revoked if they sold tobacco products to those under-age (89.6%) and for restrictions on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco near schools (69.9%).
Meanwhile, half (49.2%) thought that the legal age of sale for cigarettes and tobacco should be raised to 21, compared with just under a third who were opposed to the idea (30.7%).
Participants were also in favour of reducing the number of retailers selling tobacco in neighbourhoods that already had a high density of tobacco retailers – with almost half (46.5%) showing their support, compared with less than a quarter (23.3%) who disagreed.
Lead author Dr Loren Kock (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health) pointed to a substantial proportion of respondents reporting no opinion either way on these policies, suggesting there is potential to grow public support through clearer communication on the evidence and benefits of these policies. She said: “Moreover, support for tobacco availability policy may grow, and opposition diminish, if policies are demonstrated to be effective, and as future generations grow up without cigarettes.”
Niamh Shortt, Personal Chair of Health Geographies, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, said: “Having wide scale public support to introduce restrictions on the sales of tobacco should embolden the UK and devolved governments to introduce new policies restricting access to tobacco, particularly amongst children, and ensure future generations are tobacco free.”
Source: ScienMag, 26 August 2022
See also:
Study - Assessing the profile of support for potential tobacco control policies targeting availability in Great Britain: a cross-sectional population survey
Daily Mail - Britons want under-21s to be banned from smoking, poll reveals
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Opinion: The problem with drinking responsibly
The alcohol industry has long used the message “drink responsibly” when promoting its products. But what does this phrase even mean? Colin Shevills, Special Adviser to the Alcohol Health Alliance, argues why we need to take public health messaging out of the hands of the alcohol industry and call time on the ubiquitous “drink responsibly” message.
“Do you drink responsibly? I thought so – me too,” Shevills writes. In a recent survey of public opinion carried out by Balance, 9 in 10 drinkers in the North East of England described themselves as “responsible”.
He asks: “So if drinking responsibly is the answer to the problem of alcohol harm – as the alcohol industry would have us believe – and most of us are responsible drinkers, why are we seeing increasing levels of death and illness associated with consuming our favourite legal drug?”
Interrogating the unquantified phrase, Shevills writes that the “drink responsibly” frame reinforces the commercial interests of the alcohol industry rather than address the public health needs of the nation, as by leaving “responsibility” up to individual interpretation, all the message is saying to these high-risk drinkers is “keep doing what you are doing”, with the industry fully aware of the greater risk of a range of health conditions associated with increasing drinking levels, including heart disease, stroke and seven different types of cancer.
The alcohol industry could print the phrase alongside the low-risk drinking guidelines of no more than 14 units a week, however a recent report published by the Alcohol Health Alliance found 70% of alcohol product labels failed to include the Government’s low risk drinking guidelines over three years after they were updated.
But of course alcohol industry-profits are to a large extent reliant on people drinking at risky levels, he writes, pointing to a 2013/14 review finding that the alcohol industry in England would see their income fall by £13 billion a year if everyone consumed within the low-risk drinking guidelines.
Shevills continues that their rhetoric allows for scapegoating on more effective harm reduction measures such as duty increases, minimum unit price and restrictions in advertising as it follows that the problems caused by alcohol can be attributed to a small minority of “irresponsible” individuals. Among those negatively impacted by alcohol, this messaging exacerbates feelings of stigma and shame, ultimately interfering with them seeking help.
Government should be listening to those independent experts calling for a new alcohol strategy, he writes, concluding that “for the sake of people who need help – and for those running the risk of a range of health harms – we need to take public health messaging out of the hands of the alcohol industry. We need to call time on the “drink responsibly” message.”
Source: Alcohol Health Alliance, 5 October 2021 (republished)
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Korea study: Increased alcohol consumption is associated with increased cancer risk
People who increased the amount of alcohol they drank also had an increased risk of cancer, according to the results of a large study in Korea published on Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.
The study looked at data from more than 4.5 million participants. The study participants were from the Korean National Health Insurance Service, were 40 years old and up, had taken part in a national health screening in 2009 and 2011, and had available data on their drinking status.
The study found that people who increased the amount they drank had a higher risk of all cancers, including alcohol-related cancers, than the group that made no changes to their drinking habits. The risk also increased for non-drinkers who changed their habits and became mild, moderate or heavy drinkers.
In those who increased their drinking from being non-drinkers, the researchers found a high incidence of stomach, liver, gallbladder and lung cancer, multiple myeloma and leukaemia.
Researchers found that individuals who increased their alcohol consumption, regardless of their baseline drinking level, had an increased incidence of alcohol-related and all cancers compared with those who sustained their current level of drinking, but if abstinence was maintained over time, the incidence of alcohol-related and all cancers tended to decrease.
Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society, told CNN: "This is another great example of how changing behaviour could significantly decrease cancer deaths [...] The most striking findings is the impact on cancer deaths with changes in alcohol consumption. Individuals should be strongly advised that they can dramatically decrease their cancer risk if alcohol consumption is moderated."
Source: CNN News, 24 August 2022
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Robert and Jamie West: 'React: Harness your animal brain' online book launch
Emeritus Professor of Health Psychology at University College London (UCL) and an Associate of UCL’s Centre for Behaviour Change Robert West and his son, Jamie, writer, performer and musician, explore the psychology of motivation in a series of books. In the duo's second instalment, they focus on our ‘animal brain’, the part responsible for habits, instincts and desires.
Join the online launch of a new book on motivation, called ‘React: Harness your Animal Brain’, following on from their previous ‘Energise: The Secrets of Motivation’ held from 4 pm to 5.30 pm on 5th September via Zoom for a fruitful discussion on motivation and its role in behaviour change.
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Making Every Contact Count Toolkit now available
The Long Term Conditions and Prevention programme team in Health Education England have worked with Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh), to develop a Making Every Contact Count (MECC) toolkit.
The toolkit is populated with reviewed resources and information previously hosted on the making every contact count microsite and aims to support individual learners and organisations to use MECC effectively.
MECC is an approach to behaviour change that utilises the millions of day-to-day interactions that organisations and people have with other people to encourage changes in behaviour that have a positive effect on the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and populations.
The wider MECC elearning programme, consisting of 4 e-learning sessions, supports learners with developing an understanding of public health, emphasising how asking questions and listening effectively to people is a vital role for us all. The new toolkit compliments existing e-learning sessions by bringing together a library of national and local resources to further support the development, evaluation and implementation of MECC.
Containing more than 130 new resources, this toolkit has been structured so you can either use it whole or select relevant sections to revisit over time. You can read more about the toolkit, including how to access it, by visiting the Making Every Contact Count programme page.
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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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