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** 21 February 2023
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** UK
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** Smokers face biggest price increase ever next month with packs set to increase by £1.15 (#1)
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** International
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** Addiction researchers denounce Australia's NHMRC statement on e-cigarettes (#2)
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** Researchers rethink e-cigarettes' role in treating cigarette smokers' nicotine addiction (#3)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions (#4)
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** UK
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** Smokers face biggest price increase ever next month with packs set to increase by £1.15

Smokers face the biggest ever price increase next month as Jeremy Hunt prepares to raise tobacco duty - with a pack of 20 going up by £1.15.

Increasing cigarette levies with 12.7% RPI - plus an extra minimum 2% bump applied to tobacco products - means a pack would increase by more than 15%. It would see a 30g pack of hand rolling tobacco rise by £2.

Action on Smoking and Health urged the Chancellor to increase the duty by 5.4% in line with earnings rather than sky-high inflation.

Taxing tobacco is a large revenue-raiser for the Government, last year raising £10.7billion - 1.2% of the total tax take.

Ministers are aiming to make Britain “smoke free” by 2030, meaning fewer than 5% of adults will smoke.

Source: The Sun, 20 February 2023

Editorial note: New analysis commissioned by ASH of the costs of smoking in the UK in 2022 found public finance costs were nearly twice as much as revenues raised from tobacco taxation (£21 billion compared to £11 billion in taxes). Find out more here ([link removed]) .
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** International
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** Addiction researchers denounce Australia's NHMRC statement on e-cigarette

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** Eleven top international addiction scientists argue that the 2022 statement on e-cigarettes issued by Australia's senior health and medical body, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), fails to meet the high scientific standard expected of a leading national scientific body.
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**
The NHMRC statement, published in June 2022, aims to provide "public health advice on the safety and impacts of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) based on review of the current evidence."

This critique of the NHMRC statement, published in the journal Addiction, argues that the statement does not accurately summarize the current evidence on e-cigarettes. In fact, it selectively cites evidence in support of a 2017 statement rather than objectively analyzing and incorporating new research. The critique also argues that the NHMRC statement relies heavily on a flawed analysis by the National Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health at the Australian National University.

According to lead author Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, "Many leading international scientists in the field hold more supportive views than the NHMRC on the potential of e-cigarettes as a strategy to improve public health. In particular, invoking the precautionary principle to prevent the use of much less harmful smoke-free products is unjustified in the face of the massive public health burden of smoking."

Source: Medical Xpress, 20 February 2023

See also: Addiction - A critique of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council CEO statement on electronic cigarettes ([link removed])
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** US: Researchers rethink e-cigarettes' role in treating cigarette smokers' nicotine addiction
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** Kenneth Warner, dean emeritus and the Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, says there is enough evidence to support e-cigarettes' use as a first-line aid for smoking cessation in adults: "Far too many adults who want to quit smoking are unable to do so," Warner said. "E-cigarettes constitute the first new tool to help them in decades. Yet relatively few smokers and indeed health care professionals appreciate their potential value."

In a study published in Nature Medicine, Warner and colleagues took a global view of vaping, examining countries that promote vaping as a smoking cessation and countries that don't.

While agencies in the United States and Canada acknowledge the potential benefit of e-cigarette use, they deem the evidence to recommend e-cigarettes for smoking cessation as insufficient, according to the authors. However, in the United Kingdom and New Zealand there is high-level support and promotion of e-cigarettes as a first-line smoking cessation treatment option.

"We believe that governments, medical professional groups and individual health care professionals in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Australia should give greater consideration to the potential of e-cigarettes for increasing smoking cessation," Warner said. "E-cigarettes are not the magic bullet that will end the devastation wrought by cigarette smoking, but they can contribute to that lofty public health goal."

Warner's previous research has found considerable evidence suggesting e-cigarettes are an effective smoking-cessation tool for adults in the U.S., where hundreds of thousands of people die of smoking-related illness each year.

Source: Medical Xpress, 20 February 2023

See also: Nature Medicine - Nicotine e-cigarettes as a tool for smoking cessation ([link removed])
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions
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**
PQ1, 2, 3: Electronic Cigarettes: Health Hazards

Asked by Rachael Maskell, Labour, York Central
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**
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will undertake longitudinal research into the cumulative impact of vaping.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) undertaken research on the potential impact of vaping on health.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment he has made of the safety of vaping liquids including the potential effects of inhalation.

Answered by Neil O'Brien, Minister for Primary Care and Public Health

The Department has commissioned and published a series of evidence reviews on vaping, with the final report of the series published in September 2022. The latest report assessed the potential effects of the inhalation of vaping liquids including their health impact along with poisonings, fire and explosion risks. This research found that in the short and medium term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking, but that vaping is not risk-free, particularly for people who have never smoked. The latest evidence review is available at the following link: [link removed]

There are no current plans for the Government to undertake longitudinal research, but we will continue to monitor independent research.

Source: Hansard, 20 February 2023
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Read full transcript ([link removed])


** PQ4: Electronic Cigarettes: Children

Asked by Kirsten Oswald, Scottish National Party, East Renfrewshire

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to discourage underage vaping.

Answered by Neil O'Brien, Minister for Primary Care and Public Health

The Government is clear that vaping should only be used to help people quit smoking, vapes should not be used by people under 18 years old or non-smokers.

We have some of the strongest regulations in place to discourage underage vaping. The law protects children through restricting sales of vapes to over 18 years old only, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and through advertising restrictions.

We have recently updated information and advice on the Better Health and Talk to Frank websites to raise awareness of the risks of vaping to children.

Source: Hansard, 20 February 2023
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** PQ5: Electronic Cigarettes

Asked by Rachael Maskell, Labour, York Central

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to prevent non-smokers from starting to use vapes.

Answered by Neil O'Brien, Minister for Primary Care and Public Health

The Government is clear that vaping should only be used to help people quit smoking and we will continue to take steps to prevent children and non-smokers from starting.

We have a strongly regulated vape market in the United Kingdom to prevent non-smokers from using vapes. This includes restricting sales to over 18 years old only, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and thorough advertising restrictions.

Source: Hansard, 20 February 2023
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** PQ6: Tobacco

Asked by Daisy Cooper, Liberal Democrat, St Albans

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2022 to Question 37602 on Electronic Cigarettes: Advertising, when he plans to publish the Tobacco Control Plan.

Answered by Neil O'Brien, Minister for Primary Care and Public Health

We are considering the recommendations made in ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete’ and further information will be available in due course.

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** Source: Hansard, 20 February 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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