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** 31 January 2023
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** UK
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** Higher obesity levels linked to lower productivity in England, research shows (#1)
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** UK review of EU laws expanded after 1,000 pieces of legislation added (#2)
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** Long-term sickness leaving 1.6m UK adults over 50 unable to work (#3)
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** Blog: The health disparities white paper disappearing shows a dangerous pattern for action on health (#4)
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** International
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** BMJ blog: Philip Morris removed from Canadian COVID-19 vaccine collaboration (#5)
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** UK
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** Higher obesity levels linked to lower productivity in England, research shows
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**
Areas in England with the most overweight and obese people also have the lowest rates of productivity, according to a report by Richard Sloggett’s Future Health Research Centre, showing “obesity is an economic as well as a health timebomb”. Conversely, places with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per head have much lower proportions of citizens who are dangerously overweight, the analysis shows.

The average rate of overweight and obesity in the 10 places with the lowest GDP is 69.4% compared to a rate of 62.6% in the 10 areas where personal productivity is highest. Slough in Berkshire had the highest individual GDP, at £63,598, and also one of the lowest rates of overweight and obesity, at 61.9%. In contrast, GDP in South Tyneside is just £14,906 but 65.9% of the local population are overweight or obese.

Richard Sloggett, government special adviser on health in 2020-21, said: “The most deprived parts of England have obesity rates 1.5 times higher than the least deprived areas. Hospital admissions related to obesity are three times higher in the most deprived areas than the least deprived. You cannot credibly talk about economic growth and ‘levelling up’ without a plan for tackling obesity.”

Obesity is estimated to cost the NHS £6bn a year and the UK economy £27bn a year through lost productivity. The disease can leave people unable to work, for example by causing sore joints. In the report’s foreword, Lord Bethell, a health minister in 2020-21, writes that “obesity is no longer just a public health challenge, it is an economic challenge, too”.

Public health experts criticised the government last month after it decided to postpone until 2025 a promised 9pm watershed for television and online advertising of junk food.

Source: Guardian, 31 December 2023

See also:
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** Future Health report - The case for new action in tackling obesity in England ([link removed])
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Read Here ([link removed] )


** UK review of EU laws expanded after 1,000 pieces of legislation added
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A UK government plan to review or revoke all EU laws left on the UK statute book by the end of 2023 became tougher on Monday after it announced that another 1,000 pieces of legislation had been added to the pile scheduled for reform. In an update to its “dashboard” of leftover EU laws, the government said the number of pieces of legislation covering more than 400 unique policy areas now came to 3,700. It also admitted the list was not exhaustive and would need to be updated quarterly as more laws were discovered.

The expansion of the list on Monday was caused in part by the discovery last December of 1,400 additional pieces of EU legislation in the National Archives.

Senior Whitehall officials have warned that the task of reviewing so much law, covering everything from environmental regulation to rules governing workplace conditions, will put huge strain on government bureaucracy. The plan to review so much law, so quickly, has attracted fierce criticism from business groups, legal experts, trade unions and environmental groups. They warn that rushing the review will create costly and destabilising legal uncertainty.

A “sunset clause” in the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022, which is in the House of Lords, will also mean that any EU law that has not been reviewed by the end of 2023 will automatically fall off the statute book unless saved.

The announcement of the open-ended expansion of the list of EU laws drew further criticism from legal experts, conservation groups and MPs from the opposition Labour party, which argues the legislation is undemocratic because it allows ministers to amend laws without proper scrutiny.

Source: Financial Times, 31 January 2023

Editorial note: The retained EU law bill could have a significant impact on tobacco control as EU-derived legislation includes regulation of e-cigarettes and cigarette health warnings.
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** Long-term sickness leaving 1.6m UK adults over 50 unable to work
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More than 1.6 million adults aged 50 and over are unable to work because of long-term sickness amid ballooning NHS waiting lists and an exodus from the British workforce since the pandemic, according to the most detailed analysis yet of official data for this age group. The number has increased 20%, or 270,000 in three years, according to an analysis of Office for National Statistics figures by Rest Less, a digital community and advocate for over fifties. “Not only is this a national health issue but [...] an economic issue too,” said Stuart Lewis, the chief executive of Rest Less.

The data compared reasons for economic inactivity by age group in July-September 2019 and July-September 2022. It showed that of the 2.8 million people out of work because of long-term sickness, nearly 60% were aged over 50. In total, almost 40% of economically inactive 50 to 64-year-olds were out of work because of long-term sickness.

Bee Boileau, a research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the findings were troubling. “This rise in long-term sickness for economically inactive people is very concerning,” she said. “It adds to growing evidence that the UK’s health is worsening.”

Source: Guardian, 30 December 2023

See also:
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** Rest less analysis - Nearly 60% of people out of work due to long-term sickness or disability are aged 50+ ([link removed])
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Read Here ([link removed])


** Blog: The health disparities white paper disappearing shows a dangerous pattern for action on health
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Katherine Merrifield and Gwen Nightingale, Assistant Directors in the Healthy Lives team at the Health Foundation, share their disappointment that the long-awaited health disparities white paper will not be published, following the announcement of the development of a Major Conditions Strategy. The announcement follows delays to the tobacco strategy and the watering down of obesity measures. The authors suspect that any action to reduce inequalities and improve long-term health has been sidelined for more visible, immediate outcomes.

Merrifield and Nightingale write that back in 2021 there was a feeling of hope around levelling up, for a new cross-government approach and big policy decisions about how good health would be embedded into this work. However, when levelling up direction was set any detail on promoting good health and reducing inequalities was noticeably absent. The authors continue that the February 2022 levelling up white paper acknowledged the need to focus on reducing inequalities and improving quality of life, and included a commitment to add 5 years of healthy life by 2035, but lacked detail, money or coherence. Furthermore, Health Foundation analysis showed that delivering an additional 5 years of healthy life – if pre-pandemic trends continued – would miss the 2035 target and take almost two centuries.

On the announcement of the Major Conditions Strategy last week, the authors write: “History shows us that focusing on medical conditions means activity gravitates towards early diagnosis and treatment within the NHS. This is critical activity, but it will not address the factors that shape our health and create inequality in the first place, including our early life, the work we do and the income we earn, the education we receive and the homes and places we live in.”

Source: The Health Foundation, 27 January 2023

See also:
Hansard - Major Conditions Strategy development announcement ([link removed])
Health Foundation analysis - Healthy life expectancy target: the scale of the challenge ([link removed])

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** International
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** BMJ blog: Philip Morris removed from Canadian COVID-19 vaccine collaboration
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Writing in the British Medical Journal, Les Hagen, Executive Director of ASH Canada and Daniel Dorado, Tobacco Campaign Director for Corporate Accountability USA, discuss the removal of Philip Morris (PMI) from Canada’s Medicago Inc vaccine collaboration following a determined two-year global advocacy campaign. The authors write that the development represents an “enormous win for global public health, ensuring that the control of one pandemic doesn’t compromise that of another.”

The PMI removal follows the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) March 2022 decision to refuse Medicago’s application for global distribution of the vaccine through the COVAX distribution system, with the involvement of PMI cited as the primary reason for the decision.

Hagen and Dorado state the Canadian government-backed collaboration was a “blatant contravention” of Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which requires Governments to protect public policies from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. Over 100 members of the Framework Convention Alliance (now the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control or GATC) participated in the advocacy campaign to remove PMI.

Going forward, the authors write that all FCTC treaty participants need to fully implement Article 5.3 and its guidelines. In addition, they state governments must implement other protective articles of the convention such as Article 19, which gives governments the power to sue Big Tobacco for its negligence, deception and public health damages.

Source: BMJ, 31 January 2023

See also: WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - Guidelines for implementation of Article 5.3 ([link removed])

Editorial note: ASH Canada is separate from ASH here in the United Kingdom, set up by the Royal College of Physicians in 1971.
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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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