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** 12 September 2022
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** UK
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** Campaigners raise alarms about how kids are being coaxed into vaping with e-cigarettes that double as toys (#1)
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** New Health Secretary voted to repeal smoking ban in anti-tobacco legislation stance (#2)
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** New government health adviser teams revealed (#3)
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** Wales: Public backs plans for a ‘smoke-free’ Wales (#3.5)
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** Action on Smoking and Health responds to NHS report (#5)
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** International
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** Scientists discover how air pollution causes lung cancer (#6)
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** UK
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** Campaigners raise alarms about how kids are being coaxed into vaping with e-cigarettes that double as toys
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**
E-cigarettes which double up as fidget spinners (a popular childrens’ toy, targeted at those who struggle with 'fidgeting') are being sold in Britain, illustrating how products are being promoted to children, experts say. Although it is illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s in the UK, ministers have been urged to crackdown on marketing practices which appear designed to target younger audiences. E-cigarettes are often sold in glossy displays in a variety of colours, and with child-friendly names and flavours.

Xhale Fidget Spinner Bar is one of the devices under scrutiny for its marketing practices. Sold in sweet-tasting flavours, they cost as little as £5.99 online.

Salford-based Guardian Vape, its manufacturer, markets it as the first fidget spinner vape bar in the UK. On its website, it says they are designed to help smokers transition to vaping. A spokesperson for Guardian Vape said the vape would not be sold to under-18s, insisting that a fidget spinner was not a “toy” and designed for over-18s, although they admitted they are sometimes sold in toy shops.

Hazel Cheesman of Action on Smoking and Health said: “These products are being sold online in places that appear to have only the most half-hearted of age-verification. This plays into concerns that these retailers and manufacturers are not interested in behaving responsibly when it comes to selling products to children. Plainly it's unnecessary for an adult quitting smoking to have something that's bright pink and doubles as a fidget spinner. There are responsible retailers and manufacturers out there who want their products to help adults quit and they're being sold short by those only interested in making a quick buck and don't care who uses their products.”

Dr Mike McKean, vice-president of policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “It is time for the UK Government to act by introducing plain packaging of e-cigarettes and nicotine and non-nicotine e-liquids packs. Tighter restrictions on advertising of vaping products are also needed to ensure these products are only advertised for their medicinal purpose as a smoking reduction aid rather than a fun and colourful lifestyle product.”

Source: Mail Online, 8 September 2022
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** New Health Secretary voted to repeal smoking ban in anti-tobacco legislation stance
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New Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey record opposing tobacco control legislation has come under scrutiny.

Coffey has previously supported a motion calling for a review of the ban on smoking in public places and its impact on private members’ clubs. In 2011, she opposed a ban on smoking in vehicles where there are children present. That year she received £1,100 in gifts and hospitality from Gallaher Ltd, a multi-national multi-billion pound tobacco company. In 2015 both Liz Truss and Ms Coffey voted against plans for cigarettes to be sold in plain packets.

Phil Chamberlain, associate professor at Bath University and leader of its Tobacco Control Research Group, said: “Liz Truss is promising to deliver on the NHS, but the only thing she is delivering is the NHS gift wrapped to the tobacco industry. Therese Coffey hasn’t just accepted tobacco hospitality but voted against tobacco regulations which save lives. Unless she changes her track record the burden on the NHS is only likely to increase. Regulations require the tobacco industry be kept well away from any government decision-making but thanks to Liz Truss, they’re already inside the Cabinet.”

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “The new Health Secretary had vowed to deliver for patients. When 1 in 2 of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime, tackling the crisis currently facing cancer services must be at the top of Thérèse Coffey’s in-tray.”

Source: Mirror, 8 September 2022
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** New government health adviser teams revealed
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Ms Truss has reduced staffing in Number 10 to a core operation that includes a smaller team of special political advisers, private office and communications. The policy, data and delivery units are being slimmed down or moved to the Cabinet Office. There has been speculation in the press that the teams which have moved to the Cabinet Office will find it harder to have an influence now that they are outside Number 10.

Emily Lawson, who was widely praised for the successes of the vaccine rollout, will remain as the head of the delivery unit, a role she was seconded to in April 2021. Ninjeri Pandit, who became health and social care lead in the delivery unit last year, will now work as director of policy for health and public services, and health delivery, also based in the Cabinet Office.

Meanwhile, Caroline Elsom, who advised Therese Coffey during her three years at the Department of Work and Pensions, will cover the health brief in Number 10 as special political adviser for public services. Before working with the secretary of state, Ms Elsom spent two years at the Thatcherite Centre for Policy Studies.

At the Department of Health and Social Care, Ms Coffey will be joined by three SpAds moving with her from the DWP. They are Tim Sculthorpe, a former journalist who will lead on media, Ed Winfield, and Jessica Prestidge.

The new secretary will also be supported by Robert Jenrick, who formerly served as housing and local government secretary and now re-joins government as a health minister. Colchester MP and former schools minister Will Quince has also been confirmed as a minister in the department, and is expected to lead on social care.

Source: HSJ, 8 September 2022
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** Wales: Public backs plans for a ‘smoke-free’ Wales
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New figures from the annual YouGov survey run by charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Cymru show the majority of Welsh adults support plans for Wales to become smoke-free. Over 1,000 Welsh adults were surveyed to examine public perceptions of smoking in terms of behaviour, attitudes and government action. The figures come just weeks after the Welsh Government unveiled a new tobacco control strategy to go ‘smokefree’, reducing the number of adult smokers in Wales to 5% or less by 2030.

The figures reveal the majority of Welsh adults (68%) support the Welsh Government in setting the smokefree target, with only 10% of Welsh adults opposing the move.

A majority (89%) of Welsh adults support smoking bans in children’s play areas, up from 83% in 2017. In 2021, Wales became the first country in the UK to legislate for bans on smoking at playgrounds and school grounds.

Furthermore, the majority of Welsh adults (83%) were in support of requiring businesses to have a valid licence to sell tobacco, which can be removed if they sell to underage smokers more than once. Only 4% of Welsh adults opposed this move.

In other areas of regulation, 61% of Welsh adults support raising the age of sale for cigarettes from 18 to 21.

Public support was also overwhelmingly found for other measures, including the banning of cigarette butts that contain plastic, to help protect the environment (84%), increasing investment in public education campaigns on smoking (67%) and ensuring that all Government health policy should be protected from the influence of the tobacco industry (71%).

Suzanne Cass, CEO of ASH Cymru, said: “Today’s survey shows strong majority support for many of the actions relayed in the Government’s new strategy, but most importantly, the survey highlights which actions matter most to our society [...] There is solid support for actions that protect children, the environment, and improving education around smoking in Wales. I urge the Welsh Government to approach these areas with renewed vigour in light of strong public support.”

See also:
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* ASH Wales - Press release ([link removed])
* ASH Wales - YouGov Survey 2022 ([link removed])


** Source: Wales 247, 12 September 2022
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** Action on Smoking and Health responds to NHS report

Charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has responded to the NHS’s 2021 report entitled ‘Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England’ that found current e-cigarette use has increased to 9%, up from 6% in 2018. Additionally, around one in five (21%) 15-year old girls were classified as current e-cigarette users.

Only 3% of pupils declaring themselves current smokers, compared with 5% in 2018.

Addressing these figures, Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: “The NHS Digital survey shows the same concerning rise in underage vaping as ASH data published in July. Schools, parents and local authorities are looking for help and ASH has just published guidance on how to tackle youth vaping, available on our website. But while further action on vaping is needed, it is still only a small minority of children vaping and it is encouraging to see that the NHS Digital survey finds youth smoking has continued to decline, as smoking is far more harmful than vaping.”

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** See also:
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** Full NHS report - Smoking, Drink and Drug Use among Young People in England 2021 ([link removed])
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** ASH - Use of e-cigarettes (vapes) among young people in Great Britain 2022 ([link removed])
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** ASH press release - New national vaping guidance for schools ([link removed])
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** Source: Pharmacy Magazine, 8 September 2022
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Read Article ([link removed])


** International
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** Scientists discover how air pollution causes lung cancer

An international team of scientists has made a breakthrough in identifying how air pollution causes lung cancer in people who have never smoked, a development that could help medical experts prevent and treat tumours. Researchers found the fine particles in polluted air cause inflammation in the lungs, which activates pre-existing cancer genes that had been dormant.

The fine pollutant particles, known as PM2.5, which are emitted in vehicle exhaust and fossil fuel combustion, are estimated to cause 300,000 lung cancer deaths per year worldwide.

The findings based on research led by the Francis Crick Institute in London and funded by Cancer Research UK, were released at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Paris on Saturday. The scientists analysed data about PM2.5 exposure and lung cancer in 400,000 people from the UK, Taiwan and South Korea, and carried out laboratory experiments with mice, human cells and tissues.

Charles Swanton, of the Francis Crick Institute and professor of personalised cancer medicine at University College London said: “The risk of lung cancer from air pollution is lower than from smoking, but we have no control over what we all breathe. It’s a wake-up call on the impact of pollution on human health [...] You cannot ignore climate health. If you want to address human health, you have to address climate health first.”

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter Ella’s death in 2013 was attributed by a coroner to illegal levels of air pollution, said there continues to be a “lack of joined-up thinking” about pollution and health, saying: “You can pump all the money you want into the NHS, but unless you clear up the air, more and more people will become ill.”

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, stressed that "smoking remains the biggest cause of lung cancer" though added: "Science, which takes years of painstaking work, is changing our thinking around how cancer develops. We now have a much better understanding of the driving forces behind lung cancer."

See also:
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** BBC - Air pollution cancer breakthrough will rewrite the rules ([link removed])
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** Ella Roberta foundation - Clean air for all ([link removed])
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** Source: Financial Times, 10 September 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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