It is difficult to know where to start describing the fundamental flaws behind the new vape tax proposal announced in last week’s budget.  UNDERMINES THE GOVERNMENT’S SWAP TO STOP CAMPAIGN There is a complete lack of joined-up thinking in the government spending tax receipts on encouraging smokers to quit by handing out one million free vapes, only to then disincentivise those who take up the offer by applying heavy duties to the liquids they need to actually use them. The proposed framework reveals these clear informational problems across government and a fundamental misunderstan ..read more

  It has been widely trailed in the media that the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is planning to implement an extra tax on vaping liquids in the budget on Wednesday. This would be a monumental mistake which just adds to a systematic dismantling of the government’s previous world-leading approach to harm reduction and will cost lives. The New Nicotine Alliance is disappointed that the government is abandoning opportunity after opportunity to increase the chances of achieving its own Smoke-free 2030 goal. In just a few short weeks, the UK government has undone its former position as a world-leade ..read more

  As has been widely reported, new data published last week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that the smoking rate for over 18s in the UK in 2021 declined to a record low of 13.3%. The ONS described the drop in smoking numbers since the previous year’s rate of 14.0% as statistically significant and concluded that vaping had played “a major role” in the reduction. This is great news at the end of a difficult year for many, but also a ringing endorsement of vaping as a successful nicotine alternative for millions of people wishing to quit smoking. As advocates for tobacco ..read more

  Last month, the BBC reported that health campaigners had called on the government to close a “loophole” in how nicotine pouches are regulated to prevent under 18s from being able to buy them legally. The report referenced Action on Smoking and Health spokesperson Hazel Cheeseman asking the government “to ban free samples and sales to under-18s, introduce limits on strength and to restrict marketing of the pouches.” Although the lack of an age limit for pouch sales is not technically a loophole, it is merely that one has not been set as pouches have been regulated under General Product S ..read more

Just last month, we published a blog describing how government messages on reduced risk products are not getting through to the NHS. You can read the whole thing here but this was the summation. We are in the second decade of the 21st century but NHS trusts seem to be stuck in the past and not yet caught up on where the government is going. If NHS England truly seeks to reduce smoking by any means, it should be more imaginative in its approach and, if nothing else, at least listen to the messages coming from government and its institutions. This week, we were also contacted by the Daily Expre ..read more

  Tuesday saw the publication of the latest research by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) into the subject of underage vaping in the UK. Sadly, the media mostly avoided reporting on the good news that the proportion of under 18s who try vaping has dropped to the lowest level since 2016. There was also little coverage that those who had tried an e-cigarette once or twice in 2019 was lower than in 2015 and that regular use of e-cigarettes amongst 11-18 year olds has declined in 2019 compared to 2018. We suppose - in this click-chasing world - that bad news sells, but it is disappointing ..read more

  A recent TV showing of the Hong Kong Rugby 7s tournament was introduced by a commentator as being broadcast from a place “where the world comes to party”, but a recent development from the country’s government would suggest that this is poor marketing of Hong Kong for the unwary traveller. The Legislative Council of Hong Kong – after initially toying with the idea of regulating e-cigarettes sensibly – instead made an about-turn and has now produced a draft law which will criminalise possession of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco. In short, anyone caught vaping could be facing huge fines ..read more

image credit ©BBC We are living in strange times when a tobacco company launches a £2m smoking cessation campaign in a national daily newspaper designed to urge smokers to quit, but that’s where we are today. The Daily Mirror carried a four-page wraparound advertisement for Philip Morris’s new Hold My Light campaign and it attracted significant media attention, with the BBC focussing on it prominently throughout the day. NNA Chair, Sarah Jakes, took a trip to London to appear on BBC World News as well as commenting on local BBC radio regarding the subject. It is an interesting initiative which ..read more

  The Scottish government has launched a public consultation exercise for a new policy paper entitled “Tightening rules on advertising and promoting vaping products”. As the title suggests, the proposals seek to place unnecessary obstacles in front of raising awareness about vaping products in Scotland. The EU Tobacco Products Directive, which the UK ratified prior to Brexit, already stipulates bans on vaping adverts on TV, in newspapers and in magazines, but this new initiative from the Scottish government aims to treat vaping products the same as cigarettes by prohibiting in-store promo ..read more

Can you help with a very worthwhile project by doing this short survey? Electronic cigarettes Priority Setting Partnership Survey The survey will take just five minutes of your time and by doing it you will be helping to decide the research priorities for e-cigarettes.  This research is being conducted by Dr Abby Hunter from the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies and will be followed up later with a second survey, to prioritise the responses from this one. You can read more about the E-cigarettes Priority Setting Partnership here: https://ukctas.net/featured-projects/ecig-psp ..read more