Tag: Tobacco

World No Tobacco Day – some reasons to be cheerful

Prof Nick Hopkinson

What does a future without tobacco look like — and how close are we to achieving it? On World No Tobacco Day, Professor Nick Hopkinson from the National Heart and Lung Institute highlights recent developments that offer real reasons for optimism. From the UK’s bold Tobacco and Vapes Bill to global momentum behind measures like generational sales bans and filter bans, he explores the policies, progress, and possibilities shaping a smokefree future.  

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is making its way steadily through Parliament and should be on the statute books later this year. This will create a smokefree generation where it will be illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after 1st Jan 2009 – though possession and smoking itself will not be illegal. 

The Maldives also has recently passed legislation to introduce a generational sales ban. Meanwhile a new report from the European Respiratory Society sets out clearly that a generational sales ban falls within the competence of EU Member States, so there is no legal bar to other European countries following the UK’s lead.  

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will also extend the government’s powers to regulate all nicotine and tobacco products in relation to packaging, branding, point of sale, ingredients and product design, prohibit all remaining advertising and sponsorship of nicotine products (tobacco itself being already comprehensively prohibited), introduce powers to create retail licencing for nicotine and tobacco products, extend smokefree legislation powers to   include outdoor public places, and introduce the ability to designate smokefree areas,  as well as increase penalties and enforcement powers. There is a strong theme of future-proofing the legislation to prevent the tobacco industry from developing workarounds. 

June 1st sees a ban on the sale of disposable vapes across the UK. This has been introduced on environmental rather than health grounds, and by Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) rather than Department of Health Social Care (DHSC). The impact of this measure on the prevalence of vaping itself will probably be modest, as the industry has adapted rapidly to produce vape devices that are technically reusable but have a similar appearance and will be just as cheap. The planned excise tax, which should set a minimum unit price for vapes, is likely to have more effect, and restrictions set out in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill should substantially reduce the appeal and accessibility of vaping to children and young people, while keeping vaping available as an option for people who want to use it to quit smoking.  

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World No Tobacco Day – how to get where we need to be?

Nick HopkinsonThe path to a smokefree generation demands decisive action and innovative strategies. To mark World No Tobacco Day, Professor Nick Hopkinson from the National Heart & Lung Institute (NHLI) offers his insights, drawing on years of dedicated research to suggest ways in which we can achieve this. 

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature disability and death; two out of three people who continue to smoke will die from a smoking-related disease. Ending this requires two things: First, ensuring that people don’t start to smoke in the first place; and second, supporting the more than six million people in the UK who still smoke to quit.

‘Stopping the start’ involves making smoking less appealing,less affordable, and less available to children and young people. A key step to creating a smokefree generation will be steadily raising the age of sale, ensuring that tobacco products can never legally be sold to people born on or after 1 January 2009. The General Election has paused the progress of this legislation, but the policy has enjoyed cross-party support, so is almost certain to become law. We can be confident that it will be effective – youth smoking rates fell when the age of sale in the UK was increased from 16 to 18 in 2007, and similarly where it has been increased to 21 in the US. The year-on-year increase will also prevent the tobacco industry from addicting people later in life.

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Can we trust the tobacco industry?

Image credit: Stanford Medical School

Originally published on Dr Nick Hopkinson’s blog and reproduced here with permission, this post looks at the Tobacco Industry’s dark history of appropriation and subversion of science.

“It ain’t no new thing” sang Gil Scott Heron in 1972, condemning the appropriation of black culture by white recording artists. A recent research paper published in Tobacco Control throws light on Tobacco Industry appropriation and subversion of science. Their goal, to prevent or delay measures which reduce their ability to market products that are among the leading causes of death worldwide (1). (more…)

Smoke and the burnout of muscles

Image: Shutterstock - SMOKE & THE BURNOUT OF MUSCLESFor World No Tabaco Day 2017, researchers from Imperial’s Muscle Lab provide an insight into how smoking takes its toll on our lung health. 

Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death and disease in the world. It is estimated that the society costs associated with smoking are approximately ₤12.9 billion a year, including the NHS cost of treating smoking related diseases and loss of productivity.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the major diseases caused by smoking. The disease ranks third among the leading causes of death worldwide. Around 1.2 million Britons suffer from the disease (Source: British Lung Foundation). The usual clinical picture is that of a smoker with symptoms that include shortness of breath and chronic cough. (more…)