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Times letter: Anti-smoking pledge
Leading public health figures have voiced their agreement with this week’s Times piece condemning health secretary Thérèse Coffey’s reluctance to act on smoking and publish the awaited tobacco control plan.
“Sir,
Your leading article (“Smoke Signals”, Oct 12) hit the nail on the head. Achieving the health secretary’s ABCD priorities (ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors/dentists) would be helped by making England smoke-free by 2030. Smoking causes more than 500,000 hospital admissions a year, and people who smoke spend longer in hospital with poorer outcomes and need social care on average ten years earlier than those who don’t smoke. Smoking increases sickness, absenteeism and disability, to the detriment of employers.
The Office for National Statistics calculates that reducing smoking rates to 5% or less, the smoke-free target, would fulfil the government’s manifesto commitment of extending healthy life expectancy by five years. The tobacco control plan expires at the end of this year and, as the Khan review noted, a replacement is urgently needed or the target will be missed. The vast majority of voters support the government’s smoke-free aim, and government intervention to implement it, including a “polluter pays” levy to make tobacco manufacturers pay to help smokers to quit. The evidence is strong, as is public support, so the government should act without delay.
Deborah Arnott, Action on Smoking & Health; Sarah Woolnough, Asthma + Lung UK; Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, British Heart Foundation; Professor David Strain, BMA Board of Science; Ian Walker, Cancer Research UK; Professor Kevin Fenton, Faculty of Public Health; Professor Martin Marshall, Royal College of General Practitioners; Dr Sarah Clarke, Royal College of Physicians”
Source: The Times, 14 October 2022
See also: The Times - Smoke Signals
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Lancet editorial: UK health needs a plan, not ideology
Editors at the Lancet have set out their view on Liz Truss’ approach to health, writing that the she marked an important statement of intent on the NHS, with her first speech as Prime Minister identifying three priorities for her new Government: “the economy, energy, and the NHS.” However, the Lancet also note significant gaps left in her plan will undermine the potential to deliver real change.
Truss subsequently appointed Thérèse Coffey as health secretary who has laid out her ABCD approach, promising to place an “emphasis on primary care”. The editors point out however that the approach fails to acknowledge the key problem facing the UK's health service — chronic understaffing, with 132,000 vacancies in NHS trusts, as well as 165,000 in social care. Without a credible plan to rectify this issue, they state, achieving the Government's goals for the NHS will be impossible.
Truss’ rejection of redistribution in pursuit of “growth” paired with Levelling Up Secretary Greg Clarke’s comments that further cuts to public spending will “pull Britain out of its fool's paradise” paint a worrying picture in the context of huge inequalities in the UK; inequalities, they write, that threaten the long-term health of people in the UK. The Lancet call the new Government's approach to the determinants of health “concerning” with reports that Coffey will drop plans to publish a strategy for tobacco control. They state the “deregulatory in focus” review into the obesity strategy, such as abandoning a ban on multi-buy deals and advertising restrictions for products high in fat, salt, and sugar would be “actively harming the nation's health on ideological grounds.”
The editors conclude, stating: “The country must hope that Truss abandons ideological thinking and that the position of Prime Minister helps her operate with nuance and detail, incorporating expertise. As for health, Truss must begin by investing in and valuing health workers, without whom her promises will be nothing more than invented fantasies.”
Source: Lancet, 14 October 2022
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Councillors approve ‘smokefree Nottinghamshire’ plans
Nottinghamshire councillors approved the “vision” to create a smokefree generation for all communities in the county by 2040 and endorsed a statement on e-cigarettes which acknowledged they are less harmful than smoking, following the publication of the government-commissioned review on the issue earlier this year.
Councillor Tim Wildgust, Newark & Sherwood Council member for Boughtontold the latest Nottinghamshire Council health and wellbeing board meeting how his wife had died from lung cancer related to smoking. Smoking-related illnesses are estimated to kill 1,124 people in Nottinghamshire, while about 1,000 young people start smoking in the county each year.
About 14% of adults in Nottinghamshire smoke, above the England average of 13.9%. But the average varies widely across the county, rising to 19.8% in Mansfield and 18.8% in Ashfield, with the lowest rate of 5.9% in Rushcliffe. In Ashfield 17.1% of pregnant women smoke, while in Mansfield, it is 19.2%.
Source: Chad News, 14 October 2022
See also: Independent review – Making Smoking Obsolete
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Netherlands: Government ditches ‘disappointing’ talks on cutting alcohol abuse
The government has ended talks with the drinks industry on tackling alcohol abuse, saying little has been done to protect public health over the past few years.
Junior health minister Maarten van Ooijen told MPs in a briefing: “In essence, the difference in standpoints and interests between, say, the alcohol producers and health organisations is too great to be bridged.” Describing the decision as “disappointing” but “unavoidable”, Van Ooijen said recent figures on teenage drinking and age checks highlighted the fact that “the talks have not led to the necessary and effective measures needed to protect public health.”
The previous cabinet had set up the talks between a variety of interest groups, including hospitality industry body KHN and health insurers, last year as part of a wide-ranging strategy to tackle major health issues. Ministers signed the National Prevention Agreement in 2018 with some 70 different organisations with the aim of slashing obesity, smoking and drugs and alcohol abuse. In particular, the aim is to reduce the rate of problem drinking from 8.9% of the population to 5% by 2040.
Earlier this month, two of the groups pulled out of the talks because they disagreed with the government’s plan to allow ordinary shops to serve wine to their customers. Talks will continue on achieving the targets agreed in 2018 but the drinks industry’s approval is no longer necessary, Van Ooijen said. Tobacco companies were also excluded from talks on reducing smoking.
Source: Dutch News, 12 October 2022
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Call for interest to the NIHR Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Teams (PHIRST) programme
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) are inviting local government organisations in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland to submit an expression of interest to the NIHR Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Teams (PHIRST) programme.
The purpose of this call is to find and select local government initiatives that have the potential to impact on health and which are in need of robust evaluation.
Submitting an expression of interest means putting forward for evaluation an existing intervention that has the potential to impact on health. If the intervention is selected, a fully-funded PHIRST academic team would work in partnership with you to produce a robust and timely evaluation.
In order to apply to work with one of the PHIRST’s you will need to carefully review the specification document and submit your application by 1pm 31 January 2023. Guidance on what to include in the expression of interest is contained within the specification document. NIHR will aim to communicate a decision by the end of March 2023.
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Mark Littlewood on The News Agents podcast
Mark Littlewood, head of the free market think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) appeared on the News Agents podcast on October 5th. He is questioned about his links to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, as well as the IEA’s funding sources.
See also: Tobacco Tactics - Mark Littlewood
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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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