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Switch from smoking to vaping cuts health risks substantially, report finds
Vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, according to a major independent review of nicotine products, commissioned by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and conducted by researchers at King’s College London. But action is needed to tackle the sharp rise in e-cigarette use among children.
Researchers at KCL said smokers who switched to vaping would experience a “substantial reduction” in their exposure to toxic substances that cause cancer, lung and cardiovascular disease, but they strongly urged non-smokers not to take up either habit.
Ann McNeill, professor of tobacco addiction at King’s and the review’s lead author, said smoking was “uniquely deadly”, killing half of all regular, long-term smokers, but that a survey in England found two-thirds of adult smokers were unaware vaping was less harmful.
Dr Debbie Robson, a co-author of the report, said helping people switch from smoking to vaping must become a government priority to achieve the goal of a smoke-free England by 2030.
The authors called for better law enforcement to prevent shopkeepers and other suppliers selling vapes to children, and for beefed up regulations to tackle the “dramatic increase” in young people using disposable vapes, writing: “The advertising, packaging and marketing of disposable products to young people should be investigated and, where appropriate, proportionate action taken to reduce appeal to young people”. The report warns, however, that deterrents need to be designed carefully so they do not discourage smokers from making the switch.
Lion Shahab, a professor of health psychology and co-director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, at University College London, called the report “the most rigorous, comprehensive and up-to-date piece of work” ever published on the topic in the UK.
“We should ensure that adult smokers get the right support, which includes provision of accurate information about the reduced risk of vaping and how it can help them stop smoking, while also offering educational material to young people who would have never smoked, to discourage them from starting to vape, in addition to better reinforcement of age of sale and advertising restrictions,” Shahab said. “If this balance can be struck, e-cigarettes can play a powerful role in consigning smoking cigarettes to the history books in the UK.”
Source: The Guardian, 29 September 2022
See also: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update main findings
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Anyone over 55 who has ever smoked to be offered lung cancer checks
Anyone over the age of 55 who has ever smoked will be offered lung cancer screening, under recommendations from government advisers.
The proposals from the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) call for the mass rollout of checks, in order to tackle the most common cause of cancer deaths.
The committee said all former and current smokers aged between 55 and 74 should be invited to an assessment by a health professional. Anyone deemed at high risk of lung cancer would be offered a low dose CT scan, under the plans.
Lung cancer is Britain’s most common cause of cancer death, with smoking the most common cause. Every year there are 48,000 diagnoses and about 35,000 deaths. Experts warned that lung cancer outcomes in the UK are consistently poor, partly because so many cases are picked up at late stages.
Decisions will be made by ministers, who have normally accepted the recommendations from the UKNSC. However, implementation of some proposals has taken many years.
The new advice also said anyone undergoing screening who still smokes should be given advice on quitting the habit. Smoking is responsible for more than 70% of lung cancers and increases the risk of at least 14 other types of cancer.
Dr Ian Walker, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of policy said: “This is an opportunity for our new Prime Minister to prioritise cancer, and alongside an ambitious and fully funded long-term cancer plan, this could have significant impact for patients across the UK. Given smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, it’s vital that smoking cessation is an integral part of the programme. Stop smoking services need to be adequately funded, so people who want to quit can continue to get the support they need after participation in the programme”.
Source: The Telegraph, 29 September 2022
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"Fantastic": What Truss’s allies said about budget that crashed UK economy
When the UK’s new chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced a raft of tax cuts for high earners last week in his mini-budget, the response from the markets was damning. The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since decimalisation, and the cost of government borrowing jumped sharply.
But the announcements were cheered on by a group of secretive think tanks closely connected to Liz Truss and her advisers. The Adam Smith Institute, where Truss’s political secretary Sophie Jarvis was head of government affairs, said the plans were “a welcome first step to getting the British economy back on track”.
The mood was particularly buoyant at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), whose director general Mark Littlewood greeted the announcement by claiming: “This isn’t a trickle-down budget – it’s a boost-up budget.”
None of the think tanks discloses its funders, but the IEA has received donations from BP and ExxonMobil and, along with the Adam Smith Institute and the Centre for Policy Studies, the tobacco industry. The IEA and the Adam Smith Institute have also received millions of dollars from US funders of climate denial.
Tim Montgomerie, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, wrote on Twitter that the budget was a “massive moment for the IEA”. “They’ve been advocating these policies for years,” he said. “They incubated Truss and Kwarteng during their early years as MPs. Britain is now their laboratory.”
Truss is particularly close to the IEA, having founded its parliamentary wing FREER in 2011 and hired its former communications director Ruth Porter to run her campaign, later rewarding her by making her deputy chief of staff.
The reaction from the markets and financial institutions has been in stark contrast to the celebratory rhetoric from Truss’s allies. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund issued a stinging rebuke of the government’s tax cuts and called on the prime minister to reconsider them to prevent increasing inequality. The United Nations fund, which monitors the international monetary system to identify risks and recommend economic policies, said the budget could undermine efforts to tackle already rampant inflation.
Source: Open Democracy, 29 September 2022
See also: Tobacco Tactics – IEA | Tobacco Tactics – Adam Smith Institute | Tobacco Tactics – Centre for Policy Studies
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Smoking costs U.S. economy almost $900 billion a year
Smoking cost the US. economy $891 billion in 2020, according to new research by the American Cancer Society.
"Economic losses from cigarette smoking far outweigh any economic benefit from the tobacco industry—wages, and salaries of those employed by the industry, tax revenue and industry profit combined," said Dr. Nigar Nargis, senior scientific director of tobacco control research at the American Cancer Society. "As a society, we can mitigate these economic losses through coordinated and comprehensive evidence-based tobacco control measures, which encourage people to quit smoking and prevent people from starting to smoke in the first place", Nargis continued.
The study used economic modelling to calculate the economic loss from cigarette smoking per US state. The study found that, on average, states lost $1,100 income per person annually (per capita) on from cigarette smoking.
"The damage this industry causes on individuals' lives and our nation's economy is horrifying," said Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. "It's particularly alarming, but not surprising, to see some of the states with the highest economic loss have the weakest tobacco control policies in place. We know what works to reduce tobacco use and lessen this burden and it's past time we get it done."
Policies proven to reduce tobacco use include significant tobacco tax increases, adequate funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs and comprehensive smoke-free laws, Lacasse noted.
Source: Medical Xpress, 29 September 2022
See also: The Lancet - Economic loss attributable to cigarette smoking in the USA: an economic modelling study
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Parliamentary questions
PQ1: Smoking - Health Services
Asked by Andrew Gwynne, Labour, Denton and Reddish
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take to improve access to smoking cessation services.
Answered by Dr Caroline Johnson, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care
Through the Public Health Grant, we are supporting stop smoking services and ensuring that individual smokers have the best chance of quitting. Local authorities are responsible for providing stop smoking services and are best placed to make decisions about improving access to local services.
Source: Hansard, 26 September 2022
View full transcript
PQ2: Electronic Cigarettes - Packaging
Asked by Andrew Gwynne, Labour, Denton and Reddish
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of regulations on vaping and e-cigarette packaging.
Answered by Dr Caroline Johnson, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care
The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 set out restrictions on packaging, product standards, advertising, and enforcement. We are exploring whether any additional measures could be introduced to prevent children from vaping, including restrictions related to vaping and e-cigarette packaging.
Source: Hansard, 26 September 2022
View full transcript
PQ3: Smoking
Asked by Andrew Gwynne, Labour, Denton and Reddish
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is still her Department's policy for England to be smokefree by 2030.
Answered by Dr Caroline Johnson, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care
We remain committed to making England smoke-free by 2030.
Source: Hansard, 26 September 2022
View full transcript
PQ4: Electronic Cigarettes - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Asked by Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat, Bath
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the environmental impact of single-use, disposable e-cigarettes.
Answered by Trudy Harrison, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Defra has made no assessment of the environmental impact of single-use, disposable e-cigarettes.
Source: Hansard, 28 September 2022
View full transcript
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Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has published the final annual update in the current series of evidence reviews on vaping, led by experts from King’s College London.
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Webinar: An introduction to the commercial determinants of health
The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) and SPECTRUM Consortium are hosting a webinar exploring the commercial determinants of health on Monday 10 October, 10am – 1pm.
The commercial determinants of health have been defined as “strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health”. It is an area of growing interest for research, policy and practice.
Large corporations shape the price, availability and marketing of alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy food to increase consumption of these products in pursuit of profit. This comes at the expense of the health of our communities.
This webinar offers an opportunity to find out about industry strategies from leading researchers and consider ways to counter these and improve the health of local communities.
Speakers include:
- Professor Linda Bauld, Director SPECTRUM, Chief Social Policy Advisor Scottish Government
- Greg Fell, Vice-President, Association of Directors of Public Health
- Professor Anna Gilmore, Professor of Public Health, University of Bath
- Professor Jeff Collin, Professor of Global Health Policy, University of Edinburgh
- Professor Mark Petticrew, Professor of Public Health Evaluation, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Professor Jamie Pearce, Professor of Health Geography, University of Edinburgh
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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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