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** 8 February 2023
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** UK
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** Swindon Council wants tobacco firms to pay for damage of smoking (#1)
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** Editorial: Restoring and extending secondary prevention (#2)
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** Cabinet reshuffle: What’s in the in-tray for Rishi Sunak’s new energy, business and science ministers (#3)
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** Supermarkets stop selling Elf Bar vape flavour after illegal nicotine levels found (#4)
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** UK
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** Swindon Council wants tobacco firms to pay for damage of smoking

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** Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for Adults and Health, Brian Ford, has signed a letter with other councillors urging the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Steve Barclay to force tobacco manufacturers to pay a levy for the costs to society from smoking.

The letter, coordinated by ASH and Cancer Research UK, says an estimated £3.6 billion is spent on smoking-related health and social care in England every year on top of £13.2 billion each year in lost economic productivity resulting from smoking-related premature death and disability.

In Swindon alone, it is estimated that 22,743 adults, or 12.5%, of the adult population smoke, and it kills approximately 233 people a year. Smoking-related illness in Swindon is associated with 2,000 hospital admissions including 105,640 GP consultations and 60,230 GP prescriptions linked to conditions such as cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Councillor Ford said: “I am supporting this call to action to bring forward a new Tobacco Control Plan for England and to introduce a ‘polluter pays’ levy on tobacco manufacturers. Smoking remains the biggest driver of health inequalities and has a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of residents in Swindon. We recognise that smoking is an addiction, not a choice and supporting ways for people to quit and creating a smokefree environment remains a priority.”

Source: Swindon Advertiser, 7 February 2023
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** Editorial: Restoring and extending secondary prevention
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**
Writing for the BMJ, the Chief Medical Officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the national medical director of NHS England, and the Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, discuss the importance of extending secondary prevention interventions, such as smoking cessation interventions, beyond pre-Covid-19 levels and to “groups that missed out even before the pandemic”.

The authors state: “Evidence that secondary prevention can substantially reduce disease incidence and progression is some of the strongest in medicine.” They also highlight the positive impact of clinician-led interventions like “smoking cessation or obesity reduction programmes” for reducing the risk of health conditions, including cancer.

The authors identify 3 key problems that must solved to enable progress in secondary prevention: “The first is to ensure that people already making contact with all parts of the NHS get the secondary prevention that they need. [...] Secondly, prevention efforts need to be extended to population groups with historically low uptake.[…] [and thirdly], a comprehensive research agenda should be developed to fill […] substantial knowledge gaps [in certain clinical areas]”.

The authors conclude with a call on the healthcare profession to, “take urgent steps to reverse the current shortfall in effective secondary prevention that inevitably occurred during the pandemic and extend it to population groups that had lower uptake before the pandemic.”

Authors: Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England; Professor Sir Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland; Professor Sir Michael McBride, Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland; Sir Frank Atherton, Chief Medical Officer for Wales; Professor Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England; Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

Source: The BMJ, 1 February 2023
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** Cabinet reshuffle: What’s in the in-tray for Rishi Sunak’s new energy, business and science ministers
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The four new government departments announced by Rishi Sunak will be responsible for energy security, climate change policies, boosting economic growth and overseeing scientific, technical and cultural advancements. The i outlines their new responsibilities:

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero: What was once the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) has been split up – with energy splintered off into its own government organisation alongside climate-related policies. The primary focus of this department in the short term will be energy security.

Department for Business and Trade: Business and Trade will now sit in their own government department which will focus on “growth opportunities”, the Government said. Specifically, this will mean the department is responsible for shaping business regulations domestically and pushing for trade agreements abroad. The department will also see through controversial and difficult pieces of legislation including the Retained EU Law Bill – which is the bonfire of EU legislation which the Government is trying to pass by the end of the year – and the so-called anti-strikes legislation to force minimum service levels across multiple industries.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: The Government said the new department would focus on pushing research and development investment to boost innovation across the UK – including in public services such as schools and the NHS.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport: The digital section of the former Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been syphoned off into the new science department, leaving this arm of government focused on the rest of its remit. In practical terms, this will mean it is responsible for reforms of broadcasting and media as well as ongoing football and gambling reviews.

Source: i News, 7 February 2023
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** Supermarkets stop selling Elf Bar vape flavour after illegal nicotine levels found
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**
UK supermarkets are removing one of the most popular e-cigarettes from their shelves after illegal levels of e-liquid were found.

A Daily Mail investigation reported watermelon flavoured ELFBAR 600s were found to have at least 50% more than the legal limit for nicotine e-liquid. Across the country, the vape product has been removed from Tesco and Sainsbury's stores.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have temporarily removed one ELFBAR vape line from sale as a precautionary measure, whilst the manufacturer urgently investigates these claims.”

A Morrisons spokesperson said: "We are taking this very seriously and we can confirm that we're working closely with ELFBAR and Trading Standards to investigate this further."

The removal of the product comes after a Daily Mail investigation, when the newspaper purchased multiple £5.99 vapes, at a Derbyshire Tesco, and sent them for testing.

An ELFBAR spokesman told the Daily Mail: "We found out that some batches of the Elf Bar product have been overfilled in the UK. It appears that e-liquid tank sizes, which are standard in other markets [such as the US], have been inadvertently fitted to some of our UK products. We wholeheartedly apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.”

Source: ITV News, 7 February 2023

Editorial note: ELFBAR 600s exceed the UK’s legal limit on tank size which is 2ml which means that they contain more nicotine but not necessarily that the nicotine strength is higher than the legal limit of 20mg/ml.
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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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