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August, 2015:

Cancer Council fights big tobacco on school survey data

Aug 20th, 2015
by Editor.
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http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4296816.htm

Bridget Brennan

ELEANOR HALL: Health advocates say the tobacco industry is plumbing new depths with a devious move that could put children at risk.

British American Tobacco is using Freedom of Information laws to get its hands on data about children’s attitudes to smoking.

The corporation is denying it will use the information to market cigarettes to teenagers.

Authorities in New South Wales have already handed over their data.

But in Victoria, the Cancer Council is furiously trying to block the request.

As Bridget Brennan reports.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: British American Tobacco wants the results of surveys asking children what they think about cigarettes and smoking.

That’s handy information for big tobacco, which is fighting plans by countries including Norway and France to follow Australia’s lead and introduce plain packaging.

University of Sydney public health professor Simon Chapman says it’s a desperate grab.

SIMON CHAPMAN: This is a fight to the death.

The tobacco industry is desperate to get its hand on this sort of information for two reasons: it’s wanting to do all it can to try and discredit plain packaging, which is cascading all around the world now.

Some 10 to 12 nations have either decided they’re going to do it or have announced that they’re most likely going to do it. And so they’re just trying to get hold of anything that they can sift through to try and spin that it’s not working.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: In Victoria, the Cancer Council won’t give up the children’s survey data without a fight.

It’s trying to block the freedom of information application in the state’s civil and administrative tribunal.

The Cancer Council’s director is Todd Harper.

TODD HARPER: What the surveys include is information on age, gender, indigenous status, type of school, postcode, et cetera. So it’s information that in aggregate, could potentially identify people, which is why we want to make sure that it’s protected.

I’m also very cognisant of the fact that I can’t imagine any Australian parent would give permission for the tobacco industry to interview their children about those issues. And so if that’s the case, I really can’t see any reason why we would go against those wishes and hand over such sensitive data to the tobacco industry.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: But in New South Wales, that sensitive data has already been handed to British American Tobacco.

The Cancer Institute New South Wales says it was compelled to provide the survey data under New South Wales law.

University of Tasmania Associate Professor Rick Snell, a freedom of information expert, says that could set a precedent for the Victorian case.

RICK SNELL: They could make the application. Whether the application would be successful or not is a whole different matter. So the fact that that’s being release in New South Wales increases the likelihood of some or all of that information being released.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: British American Tobacco declined The World Today’s request for an interview.

In a statement, a spokeswoman says the company is trying to engage in a debate about plain packaging.

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO STATEMENT (voiceover): This isn’t about children, this is about plain packaging.

It is illegal to sell tobacco to children and tobacco advertising has been banned for decades. Children are not, and will never be, our audience and we have always made this clear.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: But, plain packaging advocate Professor Simon Chapman says tobacco companies see children as imperative to their survival.

SIMON CHAPMAN: When you go to work every day in a tobacco company, you know, you’re taking, you know, your salary and your key performance indicators are that you want to sell more tobacco.

And if the tobacco industry does not sell more tobacco to young people, that industry will starve itself of new customers. I mean, that’s very obvious and that’s why they’re doing this.

ELEANOR HALL: That’s University of Sydney professor of public health Simon Chapman ending that report from Bridget Brennan.

Irish Cancer Society not Convinced with PHE Findings, calls for more research on electronic cigarettes

Aug 20th, 2015
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http://www.theweeklyobserver.com/irish-cancer-society-not-convinced-with-phe-findings-calls-for-more-research-on-electronic-cigarettes/8033/

While health experts in Britain are already sold on electronic cigarettes as a way for people to give up smoking, the Irish Cancer Society is not quite convinced. Although new research recently released by Public Health England made the claim that electronic cigarettes are 20 times less dangerous than tobacco and could spell the end for smoking, the cancer society calls for more research on the long term effects of electronic cigarettes before it can fully endorse the product. They have stated that the move to suggest electronic cigarettes as a new way to quit is rather fast and they will review the subject as more evidence is presented. Until then, the society recommends traditional methods to people who want to quit smoking such as nicotine patches and chewing gums.

Even if the study released by PHE is welcome news in Britain, it is not enjoying similar status in other places as they are banned in Hong Kong, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and Panama. They are also currently banned in work places, trains, hospitals, some shopping centers, and in Dublin Bus in Ireland. Vape Business Ireland, a business alliance encouraging debate on electronic cigarettes in Ireland, is hoping that the Irish Department of Health will enact a new legislation next year after considering the findings from PHE.

If you’re not already terrified about the potential human cost of TTIP, these examples will do it

Aug 20th, 2015
by Editor.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/if-youre-not-already-terrified-about-the-potential-human-cost-of-ttip-these-examples-will-do-it-10464049.html

Ruby Stockham

In one of the most famous cases of TTIP-like nightmares, tobacco ‘giant’ Philip Morris sued Uruguay for its anti-smoking campaign

Unfortunately, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is not very interesting. Part of the reason that the super secretive trade deal has been able to dodge scrutiny so nimbly is that the nuance of the legislation hardly makes for great headlines. Crucially, TTIP doesn’t have a face.

But it will do. If the deal goes through, there will be no shortage of human stories about the harm it has caused.

Take, for example, the farmers who will see their income fall by 0.5 per cent (the EU’s own estimate) if the partnership is implemented. TTIP’s deregulatory approach will lower EU food and environmental safety standards to bring them in line with those of the US. This will lead to an increase in factory farming that will harm both the environment and the livelihoods of farmers in the UK and across Europe.

And what about the animals themselves? The US has far fewer regulations on farm animal welfare than the EU does. It uses, for example, barren battery cages for hens, too small for a single animal to spread its wings in and yet employed to house three or four. You don’t have to be an animal lover to see that a deal which brings Europe down to this level is absolutely regressive.

For farmers, this is that ‘race to the bottom’ so beloved of the Conservatives – they’ll have to choose between lowering their standards of welfare, and trying to stay upright in a sea of aggressive corporate competition.

Then there’s the NHS. There is still a great deal of uncertainty around what TTIP will mean for the NHS, and the negotiators have a great aptitude for keeping the details murky.

The EU says that it will negotiate an exemption from the deal for publicly funded health services, and UK MEPs have scrambled to echo this. But what constitutes a ‘health’ service? What about those parts of the NHS that are not directly related to patient care like catering, IT or administrative services? Outsourcing these to private providers would still push up costs overall; perhaps more importantly, these privatised services would prioritise the rights of the corporations who own them over the patient in their care.

For a complete picture of the suffering this changed NHS would cause in the UK, consider alongside it the power TTIP would give corporations like tobacco companies to sue governments for health campaigns detrimental to their profits. In the most famous case, scary-sounding tobacco ‘giant’ Philip Morris sued Uruguay for its anti-smoking campaign. This is nothing short of a public health catastrophe.

And it’s not just Europe that will be affected by this deal. A lot depends on the wording of the final draft (currently due 2016) but in essence it would make it hard for non-TTIP countries to export processed goods. It could mean that a country like the Ivory Coast, which is the world’s largest cocoa producer, would only be able to export cocoa beans in their raw form. The country would begin to lose customers at the very moment international trade is helping to industrialise it.

This Saturday, thousands of campaigners will be taking part in a country-wide day of action, handing out leaflets and informing the public about this deal which will have such huge repercussions for this generation and the next. You can find out about what’s going on in your area here.

There’s no denying that TTIP is kind of boring, and the reading matter is dry as dust. But it’s important that we fight to know what’s happening as this deal murmurs on behind closed doors, because it is in the interests of some very powerful people to ensure that we do not.

Chasing the facts about e-cigarette health risks

Aug 19th, 2015
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E-Cigarettes: A Disruptive Technology That Revolutionizes Our Field?

Aug 19th, 2015
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British study: e-cigs 95% less harmful than cigarettes

Aug 19th, 2015
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Brits worry too many smokers don’t recognize e-cigs’ benefits

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/british-study-e-cigs-95-less-harmful-than-cigarettes-081915.html

Great Britain and the United States haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. The latest example: e-cigarettes. Politicians and public health authorities in the U.S. continue to view e-cigs with caution while England has taken a more positive view — most notably a new report from Public Health England (PHE) that finds e-cigs about 95% less harmful than smoking.

“My reading of the evidence is that smokers who switch to vaping remove almost all the risks smoking poses to their health,” said Professor Peter Hajek of Queen Mary University. Hajek co-authored the report with Professor Ann McNeill of King’s College London.

The expert independent evidence review also finds “no evidence so far that e-cigarettes are acting as a route into smoking for children or non-smokers.” That contradicts a study by the University of California last year that found that adolescents who used the devices were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking.

Falling smoking rates

The review, commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) — an arm of the British Department of Health — goes further and suggests that e-cigarettes may be contributing to falling smoking rates among adults and young people.

The review found that almost all of the 2.6 million adults using e-cigarettes in Great Britain are current or ex-smokers, most of whom are using the devices to help them quit smoking or to prevent them going back to cigarettes.

It also provides reassurance that very few adults and young people who have never smoked are becoming regular e-cigarette users (less than 1% in each group).

Emerging evidence suggests some of the highest successful quit rates are now seen among smokers who use an e-cigarette and also receive additional support from their local stop smoking services.

Time to reconsider?

The report drew the expected response from the American Vaping Association, which represents manufacturers of the electronic nicotine delivery devices. It called for U.S. organizations and government agencies like the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) to reassess their views on vaping.

“This report represents a major win for public health. Smokers need to know that vapor products are far less hazardous than smoking and effective for quitting,” said Gregory Conley, AVA president. “With over 42 million Americans still smoking cigarettes, there is no excuse for major public health organizations to continue to propagandize against these lifesaving products.”

Attitude gap

Nothing better illustrates the attitude gap between the U.S. and Britain than the concern expressed by U.K. health officials that too many people think e-cigs are just as harmful as traditional cigarettes.

“The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting. Local stop smoking services should look to support e-cigarette users in their journey to quitting completely,” said Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England. “E-cigarettes are not completely risk free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm.”

Ann McNeill, co-author of the review, agreed:

There is no evidence that e-cigarettes are undermining England’s falling smoking rates. Instead the evidence consistently finds that e-cigarettes are another tool for stopping smoking and in my view smokers should try vaping and vapers should stop smoking entirely.

E-cigarettes could be a game changer in public health in particular by reducing the enormous health inequalities caused by smoking.

E-Cigarettes: An Evidence Update

Aug 19th, 2015
by AdminCTA.
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ASH welcomes clarity from Public Health England on the safety of electronic cigarettes

Aug 19th, 2015
by AdminCTA.
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E-Cigarettes: A New Foundation for Evidence-based Policy and Practice

Aug 19th, 2015
by AdminCTA.
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Stopping smoking by using other sources of nicotine

Aug 19th, 2015
by AdminCTA.
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