View this email in your browser ([link removed])


** 8 January 2024
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


** Doctors call for prescription-only vapes to protect children (#1)
------------------------------------------------------------


** New anti-smoking pill set for NHS postcode lottery (#2)
------------------------------------------------------------


** Health inequalities ‘caused 1m early deaths in England in last decade’ (#3)
------------------------------------------------------------


** Will weight loss drugs kill the fast food business? (#4)
------------------------------------------------------------


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


** Australia’s vape ban is up in smoke. What does it mean for Sunak? (#5)
------------------------------------------------------------


** UK
------------------------------------------------------------


** Doctors call for prescription-only vapes to protect children

In a letter published in The Times today, 17 practising and retired paediatric specialists call on ministers to take action to curb youth vaping.

The letter, signed by former chairs and previous members of the British Paediatric Respiratory Society executive committee, calls on the government to take three urgent steps: greater enforcement of current age of sale laws, banning the sale of snus and vapes except via prescription for smoking cessations and to ban all disposable vapes.

In the UK, vapes have been broadly presented as good for public health because they can help smokers quit cigarettes. However, many countries have taken a tougher approach in regulating them over fears they could harm children who use them.
Surveys by Action on Smoking and Health show 20.5 per cent of children had tried vaping in 2023, up from 15.8 per cent in 2022 and 13.9 per cent in 2020, before the first Covid lockdown.

The government is considering responses to a consultation on how to tackle youth vaping. Measures may include restricting sales of disposable vapes, increasing taxes and forcing vapes to be kept behind shop counters, like cigarettes.

Some experts are sceptical about the idea of making vapes prescription only. Deborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said: “ASH wants action to curb youth vaping, but making vapes only available on prescription won’t help, after they tried this in Australia underage smoking and vaping both went up.
“Australia’s aggressive anti-vaping policy opened the door to illegal vapes, conflated the harms of vaping with smoking and left tobacco cigarettes, which are far more harmful, on sale everywhere.”

She added: “Ash supports evidence-based measures to curb youth vaping, by prohibiting branding and marketing appealing to children. The disposable vapes that have surged in popularity in recent years are available for pocket money prices on every street corner and they’re currently packaged more like a sweet or a toy than a smoking cessation device. This is unacceptable and must change.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The government is committed to having the biggest impact possible in reducing youth vaping. The health advice is clear: if you don’t smoke, don’t vape – and children should never vape. We have recently consulted on ways to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to children and young people and we will publish our response in the coming weeks.

“There are currently no plans to use a prescription-only vaping model. Research shows that consumer vapes can be an effective tool to help adult smokers quit, leading to an estimated 50,000 more people quitting every year in England.”

Source: The Times, 6 January 2024

------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])


** New anti-smoking pill set for NHS postcode lottery

A new pill which has been shown to help smokers quit may only be available in some parts of the UK after it becomes available on the NHS this month, a leading campaigner has said.

A study this week concluded that smokers were twice as likely to quit by using cytisine, a natural ingredient in laburnum seeds, compared to a placebo. Doctors said it dampens nicotine cravings and that the medicine could play a major role in helping people kick the habit.

However, Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said that the cost of the pills – £115 for a 25-day course of 100 pills – may put some areas off from providing the medicine as part of their health services thus creating a postcode lottery.

She told i: “Cytisine is an effective quitting aid for smokers and it’s good news that it will be available on prescription from the end of January. However, the decision about whether stop smoking services or doctors provide it to their patients will be made locally."

“While it is obviously cost effective given the impact on public services of people continuing to smoke, it is currently more expensive than providing nicotine replacement therapy or vapes and some areas may decide not to offer it to smokers."

“Smokers who aren’t able to access this medication straightaway should be reassured that using e-cigarettes is just as effective as cytisine at helping smokers quit, and is much less harmful than smoking.”

A recent Cochrane review concluded with “high certainty” that the most effective smoking cessation interventions for adults were nicotine e‐cigarettes, cytisine, and another smoking cessation drug called varenicline.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has yet to publish any guidance on who would be eligible for cytisine pills – topics are referred to the drugs watchdog by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. NICE is carrying out a review to consider the potential impact of recently published evidence on the pills and whether an update to its tobacco prevention guidance is required.

Ms Arnott said: “The more choice smokers have the better, we know that unfortunately misperceptions about the risks of e-cigarettes may put some smokers off switching to vaping, who might be happy to use non-nicotine aids like varenicline."

“They need to be reassured that vaping is much less harmful than smoking. Four in ten smokers incorrectly believe vaping is as or more harmful than smoking up from a third last year and one in five in 2019."

Source: The i, 7 January 2024
------------------------------------------------------------



** See also: Cochrane review: Pharmacological and electronic cigarette interventions for smoking cessation in adults: component network meta‐analyses ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])


** Health inequalities ‘caused 1m early deaths in England in last decade’

More than 1 million people in England died prematurely in the decade after 2011 owing to a combination of poverty, austerity and Covid, according to “shocking” new research by one of the UK’s leading public health experts.

The figures are revealed in a study by the Institute of Health Equity at University College London led by Sir Michael Marmot. They demonstrate the extent to which stark economic and social inequalities are leading to poorer people dying early from cancer, heart problems and other diseases.

Using Office for National Statistics figures, the report’s author Prof Peter Goldblatt looked at the life expectancy of people across England who do not live in the wealthiest 10% of areas.

The report, titled Health Inequalities, Lives Cut Short, found that between 2011 and 2019, 1,062,334 people died earlier than they would have done if they lived in areas where the richest 10% of the population reside. A further 151,615 premature deaths were recorded in 2020, although this number was higher than expected because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Of these deaths, Goldblatt directly attributed 148,000 to austerity measures implemented by the coalition government from 2010 by comparing them with levels seen earlier.

Analysis by Cancer Research UK has estimated that there are 33,000 extra cases of cancer in the UK each year associated with deprivation, while women from England’s poorest areas die on average five years sooner than their wealthier counterparts. During the coronavirus pandemic, people from black and Asian backgrounds were at greater risk of dying from the virus than their white counterparts.

The report also found that “healthy life years” – which measures the length of time someone lives free of ill health – has worsened in the UK compared with countries in the European Union over recent years. In 2014, men and women in the UK had a higher average number of healthy years than those in the EU. However, by 2017 this had stagnated for men and fallen for women, but had increased by two years for both sexes in the EU.

Marmot, who authored a seminal review into health inequalities in the UK in 2010, added that it was time for action and political leadership across the board. “Important as is the NHS – publicly funded and free at the point of use – action is needed on the social determinants of health: the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These social conditions are the main causes of health inequalities.

Source: The Guardian, 8 January 2024

See also: Institute of Health Inequality Report: Health Inequalities, Lives Cut Short ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])


** Will weight loss drugs kill the fast food business?
------------------------------------------------------------


** In light of the recent approval of weight loss drugs such Wegovy and Ozempic, the Guardian's Julia Kollewe, Sarah Butler and Mimi Ibrahim discuss what the long term impact of the availability of these medications will have on the fast food industry and consumer choices.
------------------------------------------------------------



** In the UK, a quarter of people live with obesity and 38% are overweight. The new weight loss drugs, which work by suppressing appetite, have been hailed as a way to tackle the obesity crisis.
------------------------------------------------------------



** The prospect of thousands of people using these drugs has already impacted fast food chains and some food and drink companies, triggering share prices to fall. For example, McDonald’s share price fell by 17% between June and mid-October.
------------------------------------------------------------



** Despite this, food industry bosses are not anticipating a big impact on sales, predicting people will continue to buy foods, just perhaps in smaller portions. The industry is also moving to diversify their products to offer more health-conscious alternatives to meet a change in consumer desires for healthier, more nutritious options.
------------------------------------------------------------



** However, weight loss pills have been criticised for their side effects, cost and long-term effectiveness as it is unclear how long these pills will be taken by each user. They have also come under criticism for shifting the focus away from prevention towards treatment, something that many critics feel is not the correct way to address obesity rates. Many still view traditional methods of weight loss as preferable, which may be more in line with general prevention methods, rather than pharmaceutical interventions.
------------------------------------------------------------



** Source: The Guardian, 6 January 2024
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])


** International
------------------------------------------------------------


** Australia’s vape ban is up in smoke. What does it mean for Sunak?

Anthony Albanese’s Labor government banned the import of cheap, disposable vapes such as these, which have been blamed for a surge in vaping among young people including schoolchildren.

Retailers are allowed to sell stock imported before January 1 if it is nicotine-free, before further plans this year to outlaw all vape devices not prescribed by a doctor.

The manager of another general store selling vapes, as well as an array of bongs, said he was not worried. “Maybe, maybe not,” he shrugged, when asked whether he intended to obey the new law.

The laws have been largely ignored by customers and retailers alike, while fuelling a booming black market. Millions of illegal e-cigarettes are flooding into Australia, mostly from China, and are sold in shops across the country or online. Manufacturers and retailers simply relabel vapes, falsely claiming they are nicotine-free.

To catch them out, authorities must seize vapes and have them tested. In November, the government said more than 35 tonnes of vapes suspected to contain nicotine had been seized at the border in the previous month through Campaign Obelia — a joint initiative between the Australian Border Force and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

It said most of these products’ labels falsely implied they were nicotine-free, and an estimated 92 per cent were illegal in some way by breaching safety standards. Of the 287 samples tested by the TGA, 85 per cent were found to contain nicotine.

Australia’s next phase comes into force on March 1, when the importation of all vapes, including refillable devices, will be banned without special permits. Nicotine limits will be imposed on vapes obtained with a prescription and they will be sold in plain, medical-style packaging.

Becky Freeman, an associate professor at Sydney University, said the new reforms would make it easier for authorities to seize and destroy vapes without needing to test them for nicotine first. “These changes will close the gaping loophole in the existing legislation and ensure the prescription-only model works as originally intended,” she said.

Source: The Times, 7 January 2024
------------------------------------------------------------
Read Here ([link removed])
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here. ([link removed])

For more information email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk ([link removed])

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.

============================================================
Our mailing address is:
Action on Smoking and Health
Unit 2.9, The Foundry
17 Oval Way
London
SE11 5RR

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])