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Smoking at record low as vaping soars
Smoking in the UK has fallen to the lowest level on record as millions of adults take up vaping instead.
There are 6.6 million tobacco smokers, while 4 million use e-cigarettes, annual data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.
Overall 13.3 per cent of the population smoked in 2021, down from 14 per cent in 2020 and 20.2 per cent in 2011. Rates have been declining since the Seventies, when nearly half of all adults smoked, and Britain now has one of the lowest smoking rates in Europe.
In 2019 the government set an objective for England to be smoke-free by 2030, meaning less than 5 per cent of the population would smoke. Under this plan, less than 12 per cent of adults should smoke by the end of this year.
Campaigners say radical new measures are needed to achieve this goal, such as a tax on tobacco companies to fund stop smoking services.
Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “Smoking is still the biggest cause of preventable illness and death so the progress shown today is great news. But government must not be complacent. They first promised to publish a new Tobacco Control Plan for England in 2021 but we still have seen no plan for how they will meet that goal. Without one we will not meet the vision of being smoke-free by 2030.”
Source: The Times, 7 December 2022
See also: ONS- Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2021
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19% of child deaths in England are unexpected and unexplained, new study suggests
Almost one in five child deaths in England are sudden, unexpected and have no immediate apparent cause, a new study suggests. Researchers also found that 48% of deaths of infants under a year old still had no clear cause even after full investigations.
The study by the National Child Mortality Database said growing up in poverty was associated with a higher risk.
Some 42% of unexplained deaths of infants happened in deprived neighbourhoods, as opposed to 8% in the wealthiest.
The risk was also strongly associated with factors such as low birth weight, prematurity, multiple births, larger families, admission to a neonatal unit, maternal smoking during pregnancy, young maternal age, parental smoking and parental drug misuse, researchers said.
Baroness Kennedy KC, who was part of the team designing this and other associated studies, said: "What this tells us is that research in this area is now a priority. It is crucial that we identify those factors which contribute to unexpected death in children over one year old."
Source: Sky News, 8 December 2022
See also: National Child and Mortality Database- Sudden and Unexpected deaths in Infants
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Record alcohol deaths from pandemic drinking
A record number of people died from alcohol last year, which is likely to be the result of increased drinking during the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics.
There were 9,641 deaths in the UK in 2021, compared to 7,565 in 2019 - a 27% increase.
The ONS says people who were already big drinkers before the pandemic drank more during the Covid years.
Charity Drinkaware said the numbers were "devastating" and "unacceptable. These statistics are absolutely devastating, each number masking an individual family tragedy," says Karen Tyrell, from Drinkaware.
"It is unacceptable that in one of the richest countries in the world, the rate of alcohol-related deaths was four times higher among men in the poorest areas compared to the most affluent."
Drinkaware is now calling for a new co-ordinated UK-wide alcohol strategy to reduce the damage from alcohol to society and public services.
Source: BBC news, 08 December 2022
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Health and Social Care committee announces inquiry into cancer prevention
During an opposition day debate on NHS workforce on the 6 December 2022, Steve Brine, Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee (Conservative) announced that in the new year the committee will begin an inquiry into cancer prevention.
Mr Brine also said:
• The NHS will have long-term sustainability challenges if we do not get serious about prevention
• The Government should not backtrack on any of the policies in the child obesity plan developed when Brine was a Minister
• That any work involving prevention will undoubtedly feature workforce planning, and that these issues need to be tackled as a matter of urgency.
Source: Hansard, 6 December 2022
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