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** 14 December 2023
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** UK
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** Study: Smoking decline stalls since Covid as more young people take it up (#1)
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** Conservative MP Scott Benton faces 35 day suspension for offering to lobby ministers and leak information (#2)
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** Public Health England director: Covid inquiry should focus on avoidable deaths (#3)
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** International
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** Spain considers banning smoking and vaping on all beaches (#4)
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** Ban flavoured vapes, WHO says, urging tobacco-style controls (#5)
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** UK
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**

A decades-long decline in smoking in England has nearly ground to a halt since the pandemic, a study suggests. The rate of decline slowed from 5.2% in the years before the pandemic to just 0.3% between April 2020 and August 2022, according to the research. The lead researcher said it was likely more young people had taken up smoking and that urgent measures were needed.

Based on surveys with 101,960 adults representative of the population, researchers estimated 16.2% smoked in June 2017, falling to 15.1% by the start of the pandemic, in March 2020, but just 15% in August 2022, since when the slower rate of decline has remained consistent.

The study suggests a 120% rise in the proportion of people giving up, during the pandemic, and a 40% rise in the number of attempts to quit. But these were offset by a rise in the number of people taking up the habit, including an increase among 18- to 24-year-olds.

Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of UCL's Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, told BBC News the results suggested a "step change" in young people smoking, at the start of the pandemic. "It definitely does seem like progress in reducing the number of young adults taking up smoking has slowed down," she said. Researchers noted higher levels of stress and social isolation among younger adults during the pandemic. But Dr Jackson said other factors could also be to blame and warned against complacency. Young adults may start smoking because they believed e-cigarettes were equally bad for them, Dr Jackson said.

The research, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the journal BMC Medicine, also suggests, between April 2020 and August 2022:
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** Smoking decreased among 45- to 65-year-olds.
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** The stall in the decline of smoking was most pronounced among advantaged social groups.
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** The switch to homeworking during the pandemic may have contributed to loneliness and poor mental health, making people less inclined to quit smoking, the researchers said.
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** But manual workers may have had more financial disruption, leading to smoking becoming less affordable.
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** ASH said smoking rates would decline in response to government action, as they had historically.

"The ambitious programme recently announced by the government can put us on track," chief executive Deborah Arnott said, "but no time must be lost in turning words into action."

The Department of Health and Social Care said it had doubled funding for stop-smoking services, helping 360,000 people quit, and was planning to provide a million free vapes to smokers.

Source: BBC News, 14 December 2023

See also: Have there been sustained impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on trends in smoking prevalence, uptake, quitting, use of treatment, and relapse? A monthly population study in England, 2017–2022 ([link removed])
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A Conservative MP, Scott Benton, has been found to have committed a "very serious" breach of Parliamentary rules after making remarks to undercover reporters. In a brutal ruling, Parliament's Standards Committee said he was "clearly motivated" by financial gain - and said the message he gave was that he was "corrupt and 'for sale'".

The committee recommended a 35-day suspension, which could trigger a by-election in his marginal Blackpool South seat. During a meeting on March 7, he also suggested that MPs lie about the value of freebie tickets to get around transparency rules.
In a ruling published today the committee said: "The message he gave to his interlocutors at the 7 March meeting was that he was corrupt and “for sale”, and that so were many other Members of the House. He communicated a toxic message about standards in Parliament. We condemn Mr Benton for his comments which unjustifiably tarnish the reputation of all MPs."

The committee said his engagement with a fictitious company was "clearly motivated" by a desire for financial gain. Mr Benton, who was chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Betting and Gaming at the time was secretly filmed by reporters at The Times agreeing to a fee of up to £4,000 for two days' work and boasting of his "direct" access to ministers.

The MP also suggested he could "guarantee" to pass on a copy of a gambling white paper "within 48 hours of publication".

Source: The Mirror, 14 December 2023
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Professor Yvonne Doyle, the former medical director at Public Health England, has written an opinion piece in the Times on why an unhealthy society is more vulnerable to new pandemics. She writes that annual deaths are over 20,000 higher than would be expected from the previous five-year average in the UK, according to the ONS, but that the primary driver is not COVID but an underlying pandemic of ill health: “they are driven by highly preventable conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cirrhosis caused by lifestyle choices.” She says that the death rate will continue to increase if these factors are not addressed.

Doyle also points out the economic impact from avoidable ill health to the UK economy and health and social care systems. She links cuts to preventative services as adding to longer term costs. She concludes that a healthier population is now a necessity for us to be prepared for future health shocks.

Source: The Times, 13 December 2023
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** International
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**

The Spanish Ministry of Health has confirmed a new crackdown on both smoking and vaping and says people's health has to be protected. One of its new priorities is to resurrect the anti-smoking plan which will include extending smoke-free spaces to terraces, beaches and cars in the presence of minors and pregnant women.

The Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025 was finalised a year and a half ago but has not yet been enacted. The Ministry of Health says it wants to 'remove it from the drawer' and expand the ban on tobacco consumption to more areas.

Various holiday hotspots in Spain have already expanded their no-smoking beaches, with the Balearics now having 28 of them.

Source: Mail Online, 13 December 2023
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**

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday urged governments to treat e-cigarettes similarly to tobacco and ban all flavours, threatening cigarette companies' bets on smoking alternatives.

Some researchers, campaigners and governments see e-cigarettes, or vapes, as a key tool in reducing the death and disease caused by smoking. But the U.N. agency said "urgent measures" were needed to control them.

The WHO called for changes, including bans on all flavouring agents like menthol, and the application of tobacco control measures to vapes. Those include high taxes and bans on use in public places.

The WHO has no authority over national regulations, and only provides guidance. But its recommendations are often adopted voluntarily.

The WHO and some other anti-tobacco organisations are pushing for stricter regulations on newer nicotine products, taking aim at the alternatives on which some cigarette giants like Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco are basing their future strategies.

Major tobacco companies are hoping to build new revenue streams from cigarette alternatives as ever-stricter rules and falling smoking rates squeeze their traditional businesses in some markets.

Source: Reuters, 14 December 2023
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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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