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** 4 January 2024
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** UK
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** Health of England’s children at risk from policy inaction on obesity, report finds (#1)
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** Backlog in NHS and courts will take 10 years to clear, says thinktank (#2)
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** International
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** Europe’s war against tobacco has a new target: Nicotine (#3)
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** UK
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** Health of England’s children at risk from policy inaction on obesity, report finds

Children in England are at risk of diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems because ministers have shelved anti-obesity policies until 2025, according to a damning report commissioned by the government.

The independent report says that ultra-processed foods (UPF) and products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) have become “normalised” in children’s diets, with poorer parents powerless to curb them.

Independent research commissioned by the government’s own obesity research unit and seen by the Guardian shows the devastating effect inaction is having on children’s health.
City, University of London, which conducted the research, said UPF and fatty, sugary, salty foods were now standard in child diets, with low-income families lacking the resources to mitigate this or foster healthier habits.

As a result, children’s health is at risk, including long-term problems such as type 2 diabetes. “While the health impacts of excessive snacking on UPF and HFSS foods are well documented amongst adults, there is growing evidence of similar impacts on infant, child and adolescent health,” the report says.

Healthy food such as fruit and vegetables are now “out of reach” for many parents on low incomes, it says. Multi-buy deals and promotions on UPF “makes them appear better value for money”, and “policy interventions are urgently needed to increase [the] access and appeal of healthy foods”.

In contrast, researchers found families on higher incomes were “positioned to continually stock their homes” with fruit instead of unhealthy snacks.

The report’s authors called on ministers to urgently introduce the anti-obesity measures they have shelved until 2025 in order to reduce the appeal and ubiquity of UPF and HFSS, and improve access to healthy snacks such as fruit and vegetables.

Childhood obesity is a significant public health problem. In England, two in five children leave primary school overweight and are subsequently at a higher risk of chronic illnesses, mental health problems and a shorter lifespan.

Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, who was not involved with the research, said: “Parents are sick and tired of being scolded when unhealthy options are often the only ones available to them. It is upsetting to hear that parents on low incomes are unable to buy whole fruit for their children, even though they know it is healthy, as they consider it ‘financially risky’.

“We have laws in place that could immediately help our children to grow up healthily, but the government has needlessly delayed them coming into force until the end of 2025 – leaving more and more children to suffer the consequences of inaction. This new research shows how we need the government to urgently step in and regulate companies that harm the health of our children.”

Source: The Guardian, 25 December 2023
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** Backlog in NHS and courts will take 10 years to clear, says thinktank

Public services will not recover until the 2030s even under a Labour government, and it will take a decade to clear the backlog in the NHS and the courts, a report says.

The study from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a progressive thinktank, outlines the challenges an incoming Labour government would face, with voters impatient for change within a first term.

“The next government will inherit one of the most challenging contexts in terms of public services of any new government since the second world war,” said Harry Quilter-Pinner, an IPPR director, warning that reform and higher spending would be necessary.

In the paper, titled Great government, the IPPR says it will take nearly 10 years to get NHS waiting lists down to 2010 levels.

The IPPR suggests better management and training of public sector workers so they can rebuild capacity after losing 900,000 roles in local government, and establishing a new “failure regime” to support public services in need of improvement.

Other ideas from the IPPR include shifting public spending to focus on prevention and on long-term social return, such as investment in social care, community policing and childcare.

“Public services have been decimated by spending cuts, the pandemic and soaring demand,” Quilter-Pinner said. “Additional spending will be needed to address this problem. But money alone will not be able to fix the problems in our hospitals, schools and courts. The next government will need an ambitious, long-term, modern reform agenda. This blueprint we set out today forms the building blocks needed for a decade of reform and renewal.”

Source: The Guardian, 29 December 2023

See also: Institute of Public Policy Research - Great government: Public service reform in the 2020s ([link removed])
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** International
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** Europe’s war against tobacco has a new target: Nicotine

Europe is building up a head of steam to wage the next war on Big Tobacco. And this time, it’s not over deadly cigarettes but a product that contains no tobacco at all — the seemingly innocuous nicotine pouch.

Still somewhat of an anomaly outside of Sweden, nicotine pouches are little bags of nicotine, flavouring and plant-based fibres that are placed under the lip to release a hit. Their popularity is growing: Analysis indicates that the market for nicotine pouches doubled between 2020 and 2021 in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.

While Sweden’s snus — a more well-known product — contains tobacco and is banned across the rest of the EU, nicotine pouches have until now escaped the beady regulatory eyes of Brussels bureaucrats because they don’t contain tobacco. That means there are no EU-level rules on the levels of nicotine allowed in pouches or what kind of labelling is allowed.

But long-expected revisions of the bloc’s laws on tobacco products, taxation and advertising could change all that. The current rules already cover e-cigarettes, which also do not contain tobacco, and indications are that the Commission wants to use the revision to tighten the noose on nicotine pouches.

While nicotine is highly addictive, there’s less consensus on its health impacts. A summary of expert presentations to the European Parliament's health committee, published in February, found that "the health risks [of nicotine pouches] reside primarily in the high nicotine content of certain products, leading to similar or higher contents of nicotine in users’ blood."

Tobacco companies including Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco (BAT), Imperial Brands and Altria have been quick to move into the nicotine space, either through development of their own products or acquisitions of companies that produce pouches.

“The way industry works, they create a new product to avoid regulation as long as possible,” said Lilia Olefir, director of Smoke Free Partnership, a network that aims to promote tobacco control advocacy and research in the EU. During that time, the product is advertised on social media and presented as “lower risk,” she said.

Source: Politico, 4 January 2024

See also: Tobacco free Kids – Nicotine pouches analysis ([link removed]) | ENVI Health Working Group - Novel tobacco and nicotine products and their effects on health ([link removed](2022)740068_EN.pdf)
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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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