Action on Smoking and Health (UK)

🧐For anyone playing ‘tobacco industry tactic bingo’, here’s a doozy from JTI's latest swish campaign site ‘It Costs More Than You Think’. In classic cherry-picking fashion, JTI claim that every year reports to HMRC of illicit tobacco activity are increasing and at an all-time high. In a political briefing, JTI published a table that shows an increase in hotline reports since 2019/20. But you don’t need a stats degree to guess why calls were lower in 2019/20 and 2020/21… 📉📞 Check out the full HMRC data for the past 7 years (as far back as it goes). Calls to the hotline dipped during the pandemic, but 2018/19 saw the highest number of reports overall. Context matters. 🧩 Nowhere in their so-called ground-breaking research do JTI cite HMRC’s official data showing the illicit tobacco market is stable and has declined in the long term. 📊 So, why are they doing this? Industry has a long history of using illicit trade arguments to undermine regulation. See the fantastic tobacco tactics website for more info. https://lnkd.in/esQBsW9w

🏛️ As Parliament breaks for summer recess, ASH is disappointed that there's still no date for the Tobacco & Vapes Bill to be debated by peers in committee in the House of Lords. ⏳ It's been 90 days since peers first discussed this vital legislation. Since then: 🚬 Over 7 billion cigarettes have been smoked in the UK and ❗ More than 30,000 young adults have started smoking regularly We can't afford more delays. This landmark Bill is key to creating a #SmokefreeGeneration and helping every smoker quit for good 💪 📊 ASH data shows 65% of people in England want a country where no one smokes – across all ages, incomes, and regions. The public wants it. The evidence supports it. 👊 Let's get the job done. #TobaccoAndVapesBill #SmokefreeUK #PublicHealth #ActNow

🚨 The Government’s new 10 Year Health Plan calls for a shift from treatment to prevention - but the ambition doesn’t fully match the scale of the challenge, especially around alcohol harm. Elaine Londesborough-van Rooyen, Public Health Registrar at ASH explores how regions and local authorities can bridge that gap by taking action on the three biggest killers: tobacco, alcohol, and obesity. 🛠 ASH, alongside the AHA and OHA, has developed a Regional Toolkit to support local leadership, focusing on 5 high-impact areas: 1. Regulate advertising  2. Shape use and environment  3. Influence price and affordability  4. Communicate health messages  5. Provide treatment 📍 Greater Manchester and Humber and North Yorkshire are already leading the way with case studies showing what’s possible. 🔗 Let’s shift from individual blame to systems change - and work together to build healthier communities. Read our blog post now ➡️https://shorturl.at/vpKzs #publichealth #10yearplan #sicknesstoprevention #smokingcessation

This year’s ASH data release on vaping in Great Britain paints a sobering picture: vaping rates among both adults and children in Great Britain have plateaued, while public misperceptions about the relative harms of vaping and smoking continue to rise. This dangerous combination risks undermining the role vaping can play in reducing smoking, while failing to protect young people from products that should never have been marketed to them in the first place. Find our more in our new blog: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eTRJnEjW

The latest data from Action on Smoking and Health (UK) has highlighted a lack of progress in the reduction of vape use among young people. As a result, the health charity has called for the immediate scheduling of the Committee Stage to unlock regulatory powers to reduce youth vaping. Find out more here: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eqfRUSPy #vaping #vape #smoking #health #youth #smokingcessation

🚨 Coming up to my 1-year anniversary at ASH, and friends & family are now regularly sending me pictures like this- a whole bus covered in a nicotine pouch ad, complete with flashing LED text 😳🚌💨 Whilst these products are less harmful than smoking there is no need for this kind of indiscriminate advertising. 📊 Our latest data shows 43% of under-18s are aware of nicotine pouches: this marketing works, and kids are clearly seeing it. That’s why we urgently need the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to pass through Parliament. It would give Government powers to: 🛑 Set an age of sale for nicotine pouches (yes, it’s still legal for my 5-year-old to buy them 🤯) 🚫 Restrict advertising so children aren't exposed to it 📦 Control packaging & in-store displays, which we know often appeal to young people 👀 And in the meantime… Transport for London time for a look at your advertising policy for nicotine products? Let’s protect children from this kind of promotion. #NicotinePouches #TobaccoControl #PublicHealth #ASH #ProtectChildren #TobaccoAndVapesBill #TfL #HealthPolicy

Big Tobacco is always innovating because the money to be made from selling products that addict and kill people is eye-watering. Government must pass the Tobacco and Vapes Bill ASAP and take vital powers over all tobacco products, cutting off the industry's ability to keep thinking up creative ways to kill people.

📢 What do we know about vaping in adults and teens? ASH's NEW data is now published. The estimated overall proportion of people who vape in Great Britain has stalled in the last year at 10% among adults and 7% in 11–17-year-olds. This indicates a worrying lack of progress in reducing use among children, as well as a potential underuse of vapes for smoking cessation, amid soaring risk misperceptions. 📈 Vaping prevalence among adults remains at 10.4%, unchanged since 2024, suggesting the growth in uptake has stalled. 📈 7.6% of adults now vape daily, up from 4.5% in 2020. 📈 Among 11–17-year-olds, 20% have tried vaping (an estimated 1.1 million, 7% currently vape (400k) with 3% saying they vape daily (160k). These figures are similar to 2024 data. More worrying is the public confusion about risks of vaping, relative to smoking. 56% of adults and 63% of young people now wrongly believe vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking. This is a significant rise from 2024 when 50% of adults and 58% of young people believed this. What next? ASH is calling for: 1️⃣ Immediate scheduling of the Committee Stage to unlock regulatory powers to reduce youth vaping. 2️⃣ Swift implementation of new measures following Royal Assent, including: - Banning brightly coloured vape packaging and flavour descriptors. - Restricting vape advertising, point-of-sale displays, and marketing strategies targeting youth. 3️⃣ A strong communications strategy to: - Reinforce the greater harms of smoking over vaping. - Encourage smokers to switch. - Support initiatives like the Swap to Stop programme to maximise quit success.

🚨 Big Tobacco exploits loopholes with new lemon flavoured cigarillos 🚨 For the past five years, we have continually raised the alarm about a glaring loophole in tobacco regulation: cigarillos closely resemble cigarettes but are not subject to the same rules. They escape restrictions on flavours, pack sizes and standardised packaging. Japan Tobacco International has just launched a lemon flavoured cigarillo called Sterling Dual Capsule Xtra Yellow which is clearly designed to attract smokers and evade regulations meant to protect public health. -These cigarillos are essentially cigarettes wrapped in tobacco leaf -They are sold in bright branded packaging with no plain pack requirement - Flavours like lemon and menthol remain legal in this format - A pack of 10 is cheaper than standard cigarettes ➡️ We predicted this. It has happened. Now it must be stopped. We are again urging the UK Government to 1️⃣ Extend standardised packaging to include cigarillos 2️⃣ Classify cigarillos as factory made cigarettes so they can no longer sidestep vital health laws https://lnkd.in/e6PEXghE

Today, along with our partners at Alcohol Health Alliance UK and Obesity Health Alliance we’re launching a new toolkit to help regional and local authorities to tackle harms from alcohol and unhealthy food and drink, learning from successful tobacco policy. We’ve worked with local leaders across Greater Manchester and Humber and North Yorkshire to develop a framework of actions to protect residents from unhealthy commercial environments. Five high impact actions, applied coherently across alcohol and unhealthy food and drink, as they have been for tobacco, can make all the difference: 🥕 Regulate advertising – to prevent promotion of unhealthy products 🚭 Shape use and environment – to reduce availability 🆓 Influence price and affordability – to influence purchasing and consumption decisions 📢 Communicate health messages - to inform of risks and benefits 🩺 Provide treatment - to those at risk of harm Find out more about how you can take this approach forward in your own area in our Three Biggest Killers Regional Toolkit. https://lnkd.in/eM3yCn5m