Smokers trying to quit hit by postcode lottery as GPs ration help

Smokers in England wanting to quit face a postcode lottery as cash-strapped councils and GPs restrict access to services that can help them.

The revelation has alarmed health experts and charities who claim that lives are being put at risk as a result of the fragmented provision.

Evidence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that an increasing number of clinical commissioning groups – the 200 or so organisations that deliver NHS services in England – have been instructing GPs to stop providing the services. Many of the groups argue that it is no longer their responsibility.

In 2012, local authorities were made responsible for improving public health and given £2.8bn of ring-fenced grants to pay for it. But, as the grants have been pared back, councils have pulled their funding for stop smoking services.

This has led to a rationing of treatments – such as nicotine replacement therapies, bupropion (brand name Zyban) or varenicline (Champix) – in many areas. When used in conjunction with counselling, studies suggest the chances of a smoker quitting can be substantial.

Almost a quarter of a million people stopped smoking in the 12 months to April 2015 as a result of using the services, a quit rate of 51%. The services are said to have a high success rate in helping smokers in poorer communities stop.

“We are increasingly concerned that cuts in council spending, NHS cost pressures and a lack of joined-up thinking by central government are combining to block progress on cutting smoking, still the No 1 public health challenge facing the country,” said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).

A briefing last year to clinical commissioning groups in Worcestershire said: “Worcestershire county council will only fund a smoking cessation service for pregnant women. The CCGs have considered the implications of this decision and due to the current financial challenges are unable to commit local funding to smoking cessation services or prescribing of products to support stop smoking attempts.

“GPs are therefore advised that no prescriptions for nicotine replacement therapy, bupropion or varenicline should be written for new patients from 1 April 2016.”

It added: “The CCGs appreciate that GPs will be in the difficult position of having to explain to patients that this service is no longer available.”

For every £1 invested in help to quit smoking, £2.37 is saved in treatment and lost productivity. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Restrictions have also been imposed in East Kent, York and Somerset. Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead CCG told GPs last May: “The royal borough has commissioned a new smoking cessation service. From April 2016 Solutions4Health are commissioned to support only three groups: pregnant smokers, smokers with mental health issues and young people. The bottom line is that GPs are not commissioned to provide smoking cessation services.”

But local authorities are failing to plug the gap created by GPs discontinuing the service. A survey by Ash and Cancer Research UK has found that smoking cessation budgets have been cut in almost three in five authorities. Health organisations claim this is a false economy.

At least £1.4bn a year is spent on social care because of smoking-related illness, Ash says. Access to services for patients needing surgery – known as “Stop before the Op” – is considered particularly important.

Smokers are 38% more likely to die after surgery than non-smokers due to higher risks associated with lung and heart complications; higher risks of post-operative infection; impaired wound healing and the need for longer hospital stays and higher drug doses.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence estimates that for every £1 invested in quit smoking services, £2.37 will be saved on treating smoking-related diseases and lost productivity.

But the service is not considered a priority. A report by the British Thoracic Society, published in December, shows that NHS hospitals are falling “woefully short” of national standards when it comes to helping patients quit.

It found that 72% of hospital patients who smoked were not asked if they would like help in stopping.

Since last May, all cigarettes must be sold in plain packs that carry the message “get help to stop smoking at www.nhs.uk/quit”. But the fragmented nature of stop smoking provision means some people are being told to contact services miles out of their local authority area.

For example, the site directs smokers in Worcester to a service in Solihull some 35 miles away – for which they do not qualify.

“It’s alarming that a pre-operative patient advised to stop smoking will only get NHS help if they live in the right place – a postcode lottery that will damage patients’ health and certainly cost the health service money in the long run,” Arnott said.

A Department of Health spokesman said smoking rates in England were the lowest they have ever been as a result of its policies. “The needs of individual communities vary significantly across the country, and local areas are best placed to understand local needs,” the spokesman said.

Smokers trying to quit hit by postcode lottery as GPs ration help

Sending fat smokers to the back of the queue is a betrayal of NHS values| Polly Toynbee

The Vale of York has been granted permission this week by NHS England to put fat people and smokers to the back of the queue for operations. Starting in January, their treatments will be delayed a year; the obese must lose 10% of their body weight, and smokers give up for at least two months.

The Royal College of Surgeons says it is “very disappointed that NHS England and No 10 seem to be backing this arbitrary policy”.

It’s always good advice to live healthily, but this crosses a new red line. The clinical commissioning group (CCG), which buys services for people in York and Selby, is the first to be given official permission, agreed by Downing Street, to discriminate against particular patients – something forbidden in the (non-justiciable) NHS constitution. But the CCG is in trouble, in July judged “inadequate” and put into special measures and prescribed a “financial turnaround” for its debts.

Rationing will always be a part of the NHS social contract. Every system in the world rations: just look at the strict limits in US health insurance policies. There never was, or can ever be, an instant, ever-open door – however much politicians pretend, with their impossible seven-day pledges on no extra money, that there can be. But the UK system is judged one of the most efficient in the world, getting the biggest bang for its modest bucks, spending less than similar countries.

The key is its unique gatekeeping GPs who dispense the great bulk of treatment, while the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), devised by the last Labour government, judges which drugs and treatments are good enough value for money for the NHS. The rule of thumb is to spend up to £30,000 for an extra year of good quality life.

Right from 1948, when the NHS was first set up, waiting lists were the traditional rationing mechanism. When governments tightened spending, waiting times grew, which was good for surgeons’ private practice.

For the first time in history, the last Labour government all but abolished waiting lists, something seasoned NHS experts never thought possible. With a spending increase of 7% a year, new targets saw waiting times drop from sometimes two years to just 18 weeks maximum, and two weeks for suspected cancers. Surgeons’ incomes plummeted, as did payments for private healthcare.

But in the present crisis, rationing is tightening everywhere. You get only one cataract fixed where CCGs think one eye is enough. The list of treatments being struck off is lengthening, and the postcode lottery of what your CCG pays for produces injustices.

I reported recently on a podiatry clinic treating severe diabetics that can give some patients a cast that cures ulcers in eight weeks. Those in other CCG areas get a cheaper bandage, which means healing takes 52 weeks. In the past, old people were often denied many life-enhancing treatments. All such rationing may be unfair, but at least it was never personal.

The abiding principle was that the NHS treated people in order of medical need, according to resources available. Minor complaints went to the back of the queue. Urgent cases were treated first, followed by those people likely to be rendered wheelchair-bound and needing social care if they did not get surgery on hips or knees – as will many of these obese patients.

The system was blind to everything but medical priority, a founding NHS principle that treated viscount and vagrant according to urgency, priest and sinner in next-door beds regardless of rank or virtue.

But once a patient’s personal failings can be taken into account, where does that lead? More people on low incomes are obese and smoke, and therefore already suffer worse health. This is for a host of psychosocial reasons, including the sheer stress and hardship of being at the bottom. (See Michael Marmot’s work, or the irrefutable evidence from Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors of The Spirit Level, on the link between low status and poor physical and mental health.)

The poor often get worse NHS treatment, having less sharp elbows, and living in areas where the best doctors are harder to recruit. Undoubtedly most will have tried to lose weight and quit smoking, but public health budgets for obesity and smoking programmes have been cut, and are set to shrink again. This blaming of the individual conveniently shuts out social context. Don’t they have free will, these people? Politically, they will be easy to cast to the back of the queue, shamed into silence for their fatness and addiction. They will make much less fuss than local campaigners against any closures to hospital units.

This opens up new horizons: how much easier rationing becomes when we can blame the patients. Hey presto, waiting lists can be pared right down, targets hit, leaving only the virtuous on the lists.

But who are they? Let’s weed out anyone in any way responsible for the burden they put on the NHS. Away with the boy racers smashing themselves up with their first motorbikes and cars. Out with the extreme sports addicts – the climbers, potholers, boxers, base jumpers paragliders, skiers and F1 drivers, who get their adrenaline kicks at the NHS’s expense. Forget all sports injures.

Away with my own age group, too: drinking too much wine of an evening, slowly corroding our livers: a host of cancers are caused by drink and diet. And what about people bitten by their own horrible, fierce dogs? Or idiots tripping over while texting on smartphones?

As Hamlet said, use every man after his desert (or perhaps desserts) and who shall ‘scape whipping? Until now, in the NHS, the service may have creaked under the strains of the worst funding crisis in its history, but the quality of mercy was not strained. That has been the NHS’s great moral strength, as with the Red Cross or Médecins Sans Frontières, or indeed the Hippocratic oath itself. In treating the sick, let there be no discrimination over their moral worth.

Sending fat smokers to the back of the queue is a betrayal of NHS values| Polly Toynbee

Number of UK smokers falls to lowest level

The number of UK smokers has fallen to its lowest level, with just one in six adults now lighting up, according to new official figures, which also show a recent collapse in sales of cigarettes.

Just 16.9% of adults in England now smoke, according to the latest data from Public Health England. Its health experts also revealed that widespread use of e-cigarettes, nicotine patches and gum helped 500,000 smokers last year kick the habit – the highest number on record.

The statistics show that, bar two small blips, smoking prevalence has declined continuously and dramatically over the past 50 years by about two-thirds. In 1974, over 50% of men in Britain were smokers; that had fallen to just 19.1% in England in 2015. Similarly, just over 40% of women smoked back then; last year it was only 14.9%.

There are now just 7.2 million adults in England who smoke. They are far outnumbered by 14.6 million ex-smokers. It is the first time that under 17% of the population are smokers and is down from the 19.3% seen as recently as 2012.

Health campaigners said that smoking’s continuing fall in popularity is due to a combination of tough measures, such as price rises and the introduction of plain packaging, and mass media campaigns urging people to quit.

Doctors welcomed the news but pointed out that about 200 people still die prematurely every day in England as a result of heart attacks, strokes and breathing problems caused by smoking.

Prof Kevin Fenton, PHE’s national director of health and wellbeing, hailed the diminishing appeal of smoking as “amazing”. But he warned that, at 7.2 million, the number of people still lighting up regularly remained worryingly high.

“Alongside unhealthy diet, smoking is the biggest cause of preventable early death in England, accounting for over 78,000 deaths a year,” said Fenton. “Quitters will soon see they have reduced blood pressure, easier breathing and better circulation.”

Graphic

PHE hopes that the figures will encourage even more people to stop using cigarettes. They have emerged just before the start of the annual Stoptober, the agency’s “mass quitting challenge”, which kicks off for the fifth time on 1 October.

Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Quitting smoking is the single best thing you can do for your heart health. By giving up smoking you’ll be dramatically reducing your chances of having a potentially deadly heart attack or stroke.”

The breakdown of smoking rates in England’s nine regions shows a north-south divide. The north-east has the highest proportion of smokers at 18.7%, closely followed by the north-west and Yorkshire and the Humber, in each of which it is 18.6%.

The south-west has the lowest percentage. Just 15.5% of adults there light up. It is 15.7% in the West Midlands, 15.9% in the south-east and 16.3% in London.

Poorer people are also much more likely to smoke than the better-off. While one in five (20.4%) of the most deprived people in England light up, just 14.3% of the least deprived in society do so.

People of Asian backgrounds are the least likely to smoke – just 10% do so. Smoking is commonest among those of mixed race, of whom 22.4% light up.

Smoking’s decline is also underscored by data from consumer analysts Nielsen showing that the number of cigarettes sold in England and Wales has plunged by 20% in the past two years.

PHE said that about 2.5 million people tried to give up smoking last year. Just over a million of them used e-cigarettes to boost their efforts, while about 700,000 were helped by nicotine replacement therapy products, such as gum and patches.

Of those 2.5 million would-be quitters, one in five succeeded – the best-ever rate. That was up from the 13.6% success rate seen as recently as 2010.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said: “The continuing decline in smoking prevalence is a tribute to many years when successive governments have implemented comprehensive and progressive tobacco control strategies, including tax rises, mass media campaigns, anti-smuggling measures, smoke-free laws, advertising bans, and last but not least getting rid of tobacco displays and glitzy tobacco packaging.”

However, Ash is “very concerned” that government funding for mass media campaigns – which are proven to be effective at prompting people to try to quit – has fallen sharply from almost £25m in 2009-10 to just £4m in 2016-17. Arnott called on ministers to reverse that trend, increase investment in such initiatives and publish a new tobacco control strategy, as the last one expired at the end of 2015.

Rosanna O’Connor, PHE’s director of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, said: “Marketing campaigns and price increases are especially useful in triggering quit attempts.

“But we are also influenced by the people around us. The more ex-smokers there are among your friends and family, the more likely you are to quit for good and the less likely your children are to start.”

Number of UK smokers falls to lowest level

Plans to deny surgery to obese patients and smokers put on hold

A health authority that suggested it would deny non-life-threatening surgery to the obese and smokers has said it will put its proposals on hold.

The plans by Vale of York clinical commissioning group (CCG) could have meant that patients who exceed a body mass index (BMI) of 30 would face delays in receiving some NHS surgery for up to a year.

Leading medics have warned that it could become part of a growing trend in hospitals that could result in overweight patients being denied elective medical procedures in a bid to cut costs.

The restrictions were described as the “most severe” policy the modern NHS has seen by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS).

But the North Yorkshire authority said it had been asked to review the plans by NHS England. It said in a statement: “NHS England has today asked us to review the draft approach, which we will now do, and will hold off implementing anything until we have an agreed way forward.

“We will ensure any plans are implemented in line with national guidance, are in the best interests of our patients and are clinically robust.”

A spokesman for NHS England said denying operations to a particular group – such as smokers – was “inconsistent” with the NHS constitution.

“Major surgery poses much higher risks for severely overweight patients who smoke. So local GP-led clinical commissioning groups are entirely right to ensure these patients first get support to lose weight and try and stop smoking before their hip or knee operation.

“Reducing obesity and cutting smoking not only benefits patients, but saves the NHS and taxpayers millions of pounds.

“This does not and cannot mean blanket bans on particular patients such as smokers getting operations, which would be inconsistent with the NHS constitution.

“Vale of York CCG is currently under special measures legal direction, and NHS England is today asking it to review its proposed approach before it takes effect to ensure it is proportionate, clinically reasonable and consistent with applicable national clinical guidelines.”

The report by the CCG said obese patients may secure a referral in less than a year if they shed 10% of their weight. Similarly, if smokers refuse to quit they faced having procedures delayed for up to six months, which can be accelerated if they quit their habit for eight weeks.

News of the proposed rationing sparked criticism from the former health minister Norman Lamb, who said it was “outrageous”.

NHS Providers, which represents NHS leaders, said similar proposals were likely to follow in future.

A spokesman said a number of considerations are taken by health services outside of costs when considering the decision to operate, but added: “However, given that we are in the middle of the longest and deepest financial squeeze in the NHS’s history, we are likely to see more decisions like this in future.”

In April, the RCS found almost a third of CCGs have one or more mandatory policies on BMI level, stopping overweight or obese patients being referred for routine surgery. Cancer patients are not included within the scope of such policies.

Body mass index, which relates to a person’s weight and height, is used by experts to define overweight and obese limits.

Those with a BMI of 30 to 35 and above are said to be moderately obese, while someone whose BMI is higher than 40 is classified as severely obese.

The president of the RCS, Clare Marx, said: “The policies being introduced by Vale of York CCG are some of the most severe the modern NHS has ever seen.

“We would support any attempts by Vale of York to expand its weight-loss and smoking-cessation programmes, but introducing blanket bans that delay patients’ access to what can be life-changing surgery for up to a year is wrong.”

Lamb, a Liberal Democrat who served as minister for state care and support in the Department of Health between 2012 and 2015, said: “Any rationing not based on clinical need is outrageous. But it is caused by the Conservative government persisting with plans to reduce the share of our national income spent on the NHS.”

Plans to deny surgery to obese patients and smokers put on hold

Hospitals to cut costs by denying surgery to smokers and the obese

Smokers and obese people will increasingly be denied surgery on the NHS as hospital managers cut costs to deal with financial restraints, prominent health service figures have warned.

The prediction came as one health authority said it would make people wait up to a year for elective surgery for conditions that are not life-threatening if their body mass index (BMI) – which measures weight in relation to height – was 30 or greater.

To score a BMI of 30, a man of average height in Britain – 5ft 10in – would have to weigh 15 stone. A woman of average height (5ft 5in) would have to weigh 12 stone 12lb.

Vale of York clinical commissioning group (CCG) said it had taken the decision because it was the “best way of achieving maximum value from the limited resources available”.

But the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) warned that it was a dangerous move that ranked among the “most severe the modern NHS has ever seen”.

Its president, Clare Marx, said that while the RCS supports helping people to lose weight and stop smoking, “introducing blanket bans that delay patients’ access to what can be life-changing surgery for up to a year is wrong”.

She added: “As the true scale of financial pressure on NHS trusts has become clear over the summer, we are fast finding ourselves in a situation where CCGs are introducing draconian commissioning policies, often flouting Nice [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] or other clinical guidance, in order to balance the books.

“An honest national debate on exactly what the NHS can afford, and what we are willing to pay, is urgently needed.”

Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers – which represents acute care, ambulance and community services – told the Daily Telegraph: “I think we are going to see more and more decisions like this.

“It’s the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books, and in a way you have to applaud their honesty. You can see why they’re doing this – the service is bursting at the seams.”

In a statement released on Friday, Vale of York CCG said: “The local system is under severe pressure. This work will help to ensure that we get the very best value from the NHS and not exceed our resources or risk the ability of the NHS being there when people really need it.”

Policy documents produced by bosses in the North Yorkshire authority make clear that adult smokers will have elective surgery postponed “for six months or until they’ve stopped smoking for eight weeks”.

And, for people whose BMI is 30 or more – who are defined as obese – such treatment will be put back a year “or until 10% of weight loss is achieved, whichever is the sooner”.

The CCG added that, in either case, “patients undergoing surgery for cancer will not be affected” and its clinicians would “identify other groups of patients who should be exceptions to the policy”.

In March last year, it was reported that the vast majority of NHS authorities were placing restrictions on access to surgery for overweight people, including one CCG that was refusing all routine surgery to people whose BMI was 35 or greater – those defined as morbidly obese.

The investigation by GP magazine also found that most of England’s CCGs were denying some treatments to smokers.

Hospitals to cut costs by denying surgery to smokers and the obese

British smokers urged to start vaping by well being officials

Britain’s eight million smokers have been urged to start off ‘vaping’ soon after a government-backed report identified that the electronic gadgets are 20 times much less dangerous than traditional cigarettes.

So far no electronic cigarette has been licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare merchandise Regulatory Company (MHRA) or the National Institute for Overall health and Care Excellence (Nice).

But a new report launched these days by Public Well being England, Kings College London and Queen Mary London, discovered e-cigarettes carry just 5 per cent of the risk of tobacco and must be broadly adopted by smokers.

If each smoker in Britain switched to vaping, all around 75,000 lives a year could be saved, they estimate. The authorities known as for e-cigarettes to be prescribed on the NHS as soon as regulated.

Nagy Memes Szabolcz and Georgia Samuels at Vapefest, Shrewsbury

Nevertheless several scientific studies have identified that the flavours employed in e-cigarettes may result in respiratory issues and damage the immune technique while analysis published on Tuesday by the University of Southern California advised they could encourage youngsters to take up smoking.

“E-cigarettes are not completely threat totally free but when compared to smoking , evidence displays they carry just a fraction of the harm,” mentioned Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Well being and Well-getting, at PHE.

“We’re encouraging smokers to look at e-cigarettes as a way to help them to lessen publicity to harm from smoking.

“At the moment there are no licensed goods that can be utilized for medicinal purposes and that’s why we are extremely supportive of the MRHA seeking at the pathway for making certain that there are safe and regulated e-cigarettes that can be promoted for health care purposes.

“Smoking continues to result in the biggest numbers of preventable deaths every single 12 months. Our ambition remains to see the 1st smoke free of charge generation by 2025.”

“Concerns do remain as to the prolonged-phrase well being impact of e-cigarettes…”

Penny Woods, Chief Executive of the British Lung Basis

British smokers urged to start vaping by well being officials

Long-phrase smokers find plain-packaged cigarettes taste worse

Long-term smokers discover the taste of plain-packaged cigarettes worse than that of branded cigarettes, new research suggests.

A research of 51 smokers by the University of Newcastle also found that participants can no longer differentiate in between brands, saying all cigarettes now tasted the identical.

Tobacco businesses have denied changing elements, and co-writer and PhD candidate Ashleigh Guillaumier explained the study’s findings highlight the energy of branding.

“It truly is one particular of the primary reasons that the tobacco business fought so difficult towards the introduction of plain packs,” Guillaumier said.

“They have invested a whole lot of time developing up their branding and know how influential it is on people’s perceptions and expertise of the product.”

The researchers investigated the affect of the new one-colour packets dominated by vivid health warnings by conducting group discussions with smokers just before and soon after plain packaging was implemented in 2012.

“They could not discern a distinction among brands now and they thought the top quality of the tobacco had deteriorated.

“That was a steady talking stage that people genuinely agreed on in the groups sessions.”

Co-writer Associate Professor Billie Bonevski explained the review lent assistance to the plain-packaging legislation and presented fuel for other countries to get up the policy.

Plain packaging became mandatory on one December 2012.

The University of Newcastle study is published in Overall health Education Research (Oxford University Press).

Long-phrase smokers find plain-packaged cigarettes taste worse

Social smokers underestimate dangers, study suggests

Public Wellness England says ‘the ideal factor a smoker can do is quit completely’. Photograph: PA

Britain’s one.1 million “social smokers” wrongly believe that puffing only occasionally will not harm their health and underestimate their threat of dying early from the habit, a examine demonstrates.

Only a single in 4 part-time smokers worries that their tobacco intake will harm their overall health even though this kind of smokers eat an regular of 37 cigarettes a week. Smoking as handful of as among a single and 4 cigarettes a day can triple the risk of dying from heart condition.

The findings from research led by a tobacco professional, Professor Robert West of University School London, led wellness campaigners to warn that social smokers – who typically smoke only after or twice a week – are “in denial” about the dangers they are dealing with.

“In spite of common perceptions a lot of element-time and social smokers get through adequate cigarettes a week to place their lives on the line,” stated Dr Mike Knapton, associate health-related director of the British Heart Foundation.

“The reality that only a quarter say they are anxious about smoking harming their well being and even fewer believe they are addicted shows also numerous are in denial about the life-threatening damage they could be doing”, Knapton added. each and every now and then. The best thing a smoker can do is end totally, now and forever.”

Social smokers underestimate dangers, study suggests

E-cigarettes: assisting smokers quit or glamorising a unsafe habit?

Electronic cigarettes are to be classed as medicines, which means medical doctors will be able to prescribe them to smokers trying to quit. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Smoking is great again. At least, electronically. The electronic cigarette (e-cig, vapouriser, fake fag, digital cancer) is, if you feel the adverts and scare stories in the press, the new black.

No longer pleased with the adverse well being effects of smoking analogue conventional cigarettes, a big swathe of smokers are hanging up their lighters and picking up minor metal sticks loaded with a battery, a metal coil, propylene glycol, glycerine and nicotine.

“In one year, its use has doubled,” says Iain Quinn of ILoveVapour.com. “In 2012, there have been about 500,000 vapers in the Uk. Now there are 1.2 million.”

The ubiquity of the digital cigarette is undeniable. As a new convert to vaping – a reference to the smoke-like vapour the unit emits when you suck on it, I appear to uncover them everywhere. Men and women use them in offices, in bars, on public transport. And, though some quizzical looks are thrown when you puff out a cloud of smoke, faces calm as soon as men and women realise you’re not smoking an real cigarette.

Because England’s smoking ban in 2007, smokers have had to duck out of buildings to get their nicotine resolve. Action on Smoking and Well being (Ash) estimates that two thirds of the UK’s ten million smokers would like to quit. Health-related tips varies from GP to GP, but mine advised I give e-cigarettes a go soon after its cousin, the inhalator – a plastic tube filled with a nicotine-soaked sponge – manufactured me come to feel I was sucking on a tampon.

From 2016, the electronic cigarette will be classed as a medicine. This signifies it will be regulated by the MHRA and medical doctors in the NHS will be in a position to prescribe it to support smokers minimize down or quit.

However this seeming official acceptance of vaping cannot quell fears that it is not only normalising smoking, but glamorising it. Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus chuffed on a single at the Golden Globes and celebs are papped strolling out of bars with them. Advertised as the healthy way to smoke and seeing a gap in the market place, firms are now becoming acquired by tobacco companies that want a stake in the £200m business – for example, Skycig’s acquisition by Lorillard.

Vapour liquid comes in flavours from chocolate to piña colada, top colleges in the US to ban it simply because they worry it will act as a gateway drug to the true issue.

“Smokers are addicted to the nicotine but it is the smoke that kills them,” says Martin Dockrell of Ash. “Nicotine is frequently element of the resolution rather than the difficulty, and we know that nicotine substitute treatment combined with skilled support makes smokers four instances a lot more likely to quit successfully.”

For a smoker, the benefits are clear. You can feed – or wean by yourself off – your addiction to nicotine. You will not have to inhale the 4,000-seven,000 toxins a regular cigarette sends down your throat. It is less costly. A unit charges a minor a lot more than a packet of cigarettes and refills are just more than a pound each and declare to have as much nicotine as twenty smokes.

You never drop the social facet of cigarette smoking both. Variations in nicotine doses and tastes appear to be an easy subject of conversation from the darkest of Soho members’ bars to the rainiest of Hackney bus stops.

There are downsides.

Legal authorities, this kind of as Alex Bonner from London’s Blake Lapthorn, say it truly is up to employers to make their personal policy determination as to whether or not or not to allow vaping at perform. “Employers have an obligation to supply a risk-free spot of operate,” says Bonner. “The lengthy-phrase well being implications of the e-cigarette are not nevertheless recognized, and it has even been suggested that they may possibly not presently meet acceptable specifications of safety and top quality.”

A University of Sterling and Cancer Investigation Uk report on the trend raises inquiries about the safety of some of the doses of nicotine in some designs as effectively as the propylene glycol utilized to suspend it.

The report also addressed the problems of corporate power and tobacco companies’ real commitment to harm reduction through their exploration of the e-cigarette market place. They have extended been making an attempt to push reduced-tar and “safer” cigarettes. As the cigarette marketplace deteriorates, does their recent investment maintain rather than minimize harm?

“I know a couple of men and women who by no means smoked cigarettes but are now hooked on e-cigs,” says Mohammed, a thirty-12 months-previous sound engineer. “I’ve completed a couple of Bengali weddings and even the girls are puffing away. It is a amazing thing to do.”

What transpires to discarded e-cigs and refills is also a concern as they contribute to the volume of global e-waste. “How quickly will these products end up on the shores of Africa and Asia?” asks Michael Jones of the United Nations’ Secure Planet campaign.

The truth remains that we might be moving away from tobacco, but, as prolonged as we have nicotine, we’re just finding new approaches of dosing up with the drug we’re addicted to. And as long as there is demand, a person is going to provide.

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E-cigarettes: assisting smokers quit or glamorising a unsafe habit?

New Year ad campaign targets smokers

Link to video: Public Wellness England anti-smoking campaign

The government is aiming to capitalise on the yearly swathe of health-connected resolutions manufactured by Britons at New Yr by launching a £3m ad campaign to get smokers to quit.

Public Well being England, an executive company of the Department of Overall health, is rolling out a nationwide campaign focusing on the toxic cycle of dirty blood induced by inhaling the chemicals in cigarettes.

The Tv ad, developed by ad company Dare/Now, opens with a guy smoking just before making use of unique effects to present the harmful influence cigarettes can have on the heart and brain.

The campaign, called Toxic Cycle, will be backed by posters, on-line ads and billboards as nicely as a unique-develop “tunnel of blood” at London Bridge train station.

“This promoting campaign aims to remind smokers of the harm that cigarettes result in out of sight, within the body,” mentioned Sheila Mitchell, director of advertising at PHE. “The injury that smoking has on the heart and lungs is relatively properly documented. But the potential harm to the brain by way of increased risk of a stroke or cognitive decline is anything smokers are much less aware of and we hope the adverts will highlight this as well.”

The ad campaign marks the commence of a £15m anti-smoking push this 12 months, PHE spends about a quarter of its practically £60m yearly advertising price range on smoking campaigns like “Stoptober”.

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New Year ad campaign targets smokers