Prisoners who smoke are to be offered free vaping kits as Scotland’s jails prepare to go tobacco-free later this year, according to a story by Reevel Alderson for BBC Online.
The initiative, which will cost about £200,000, is part of a program to help inmates give up smoking.
Vaping kits will be issued from the start of November, before the ban comes into force at the end of the month.
For two months, the kits will be provided free of charge. They will then be sold at a discounted rate until April, after which prisoners will have to pay the normal price.
The Alderson story said it was believed that more than 70 percent of Scotland’s prison inmates smoked: a much higher rate than that within the general population. Among female inmates, the story said, the figure could be as high as 95 percent.
Smoking in enclosed public places was banned in Scotland in 2006, but the ban did not apply to prisons. Inmates have been permitted to smoke in their cells and some outside spaces.
But a year ago the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) announced plans to make prisons completely smoke-free.
The Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said it was right to offer some transitional help for inmates, but that the cost should also be considered. “This is a cost to the public purse at the end of the day, but they have time limited it,” he was quoted as saying.
“I think that has to be the right thing to do. To say we will help you transition off smoking, but after that the public shouldn’t be shelling out to help you transition away.”
Category: People
Vaping outlet for inmates
Bring out the bins
A smokers’ lobby group today gave a cautious welcome to a new campaign to reduce cigarette litter but called on councils to provide more cigarette bins.
“It’s all very well demanding that smokers bin the butt, but where are the bins?”, asked Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest in responding to the launch of Keep Britain Tidy’s ‘BinTheButt’ campaign.
“Unfortunately many councils refuse to provide cig bins because they say it ‘normalises’ smoking. They can’t have it both ways.
“We’d be happy to support this campaign but if Keep Britain Tidy really wants to address the issue of cigarette butts they need to lobby councils to provide more bins.
“They also need to re-engage with the tobacco industry and work with consumer groups such as Forest.
“Meanwhile a bin the butt campaign that ignores the importance of bins is a bit of a joke, to be honest.”UK taxes too high
Eighty-six percent of UK adult smokers believe that tobacco prices are too high, while 56 percent agree that rising prices tempt them to buy untaxed tobacco, according to the results of a survey commissioned by the UK’s Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (UKTMA).
The survey of more than 12,000 adult smokers in the UK found that more than three-quarters regularly avoid UK taxes by buying tobacco from the black market, abroad or duty free.
It found that the number of smokers who avoid paying UK duty now stands at an all-time high, a finding that the UKTMA says supports HM Revenue and Customs analysis that untaxed and illicit tobacco remains a problem throughout the UK.
‘Moreover,’ the UKTMA said in a press note, ‘the findings confirm that adult smokers are being pushed towards non-UK-duty tobacco by high tobacco taxation, the introduction of plain packaging and the recent ban on minimum tobacco pack sizes.’
The key findings of the survey were said to be:- ’76 percent of adult smokers buy untaxed tobacco at least once a year – this can be from legal sources such as at duty free but also includes illegal sources such as from people in the pub or in street markets.’
- ’16 percent of adult smokers spend more than £1,000 on untaxed tobacco every year.’
- ’28 percent of smokers agree that plain packaging tempts them to buy untaxed tobacco.’
- ’37 percent of smokers agree that minimum pack sizes tempt them to buy untaxed tobacco.’
- ‘The average price for a pack of 20 illegal cigarettes is just £4.33 – almost half the typical legitimate UK price.’
- ‘London (85 percent) has the highest prevalence on non-UK duty paid tobacco purchases with Wales having the lowest (70 percent).’
- ’86 percent of adult smokers believe that tobacco prices are too high and 56 percent agree that rising tobacco prices tempt them to buy untaxed tobacco.’
- ’64 percent of adult smokers would support the re-introduction of duty free tobacco shopping from the EU post Brexit even if it was limited to 200 cigarettes or 250 g roll your own tobacco.’
‘These findings reinforce the concern that the illicit tobacco trade is continuing to be a major problem,’ the press note said.
‘Valued at £2.5 billion in 2016-17 by HRMC, the illicit tobacco trade reduces tobacco tax revenues, brings crime into communities, costs jobs and impacts legitimate business, particularly independent retailers.
‘The TMA recommends that, post-Brexit, the UK introduces fixed limits on personal tobacco imports to end the option for smokers to bring unlimited amounts of cheap tobacco back from the EU. This would reduce the opportunity for criminals to buy tobacco, claiming it is for personal use and then selling it on illegally.’
Giles Roca, the director general of the UKTMA was quoted as saying that the survey, now in its fifth year, had shown that the issue of untaxed tobacco was becoming an even greater problem across the UK.
“Smokers cite price as the chief reason for avoiding duty and with tax making up 90 percent of the price, combined with two duty increases in 2017 we can see the direct impact that the Government’s taxation policy is having,” Roca said.
“This survey also shows that the introduction of plain packaging and the ban on small packs of tobacco in the last year are also contributing to making the problem of untaxed tobacco purchases worse and encouraging smokers to buy from illegal sources.
“The Government needs to undertake a full review of its approach towards tobacco as their policies are contributing to this illegal activity, which affects local communities, public finances and small business.”Nearly 11 million US vapers
Roughly 10.8 million US adults use electronic cigarettes, and more than half of them are under 35 years old, according to a story at reuters.com citing the results of a study.
One in three e-cigarette users vape daily, researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
“Electronic cigarette use is also closely associated with other high-risk behaviors,” said senior study author Dr. Michael Blaha, director of clinical research for the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease.
“The most common pattern of use in the US is dual use, i.e. current use of both traditional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.”
The study found that 20-somethings, smokers of traditional cigarettes, unemployed adults, and people who identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender (LGBT) are more likely than other individuals to use e-cigarettes, the study also found.
“It is becoming clear that specific vulnerable groups are at highest risk of adopting electronic cigarettes,” Blaha said by email.
The Reuters story said that a limitation, however, was that all the data was self-reported and not verified by medical records.
And researchers didn’t know the type of e-cigarette devices people used or the liquids they vaped.Reducing harm with e-cigs
Electronic cigarette use may reverse some of the harm resulting from tobacco smoking in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a PR Newswire story – relayed by the TMA – based on a study published in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease by Dr. Riccardo Polosa, MD, PhD, the director of the Institute for Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology at the University of Catania, Italy.
The study found too that e-cigarette use may improve COPD outcomes over the long term.
The researchers evaluated changes in objective and subjective respiratory parameters among 44 COPD patients and compared those who stopped smoking or substantially reduced it by switching to e-cigarette use with COPD patients who were smokers not using e-cigarettes at the time of the study.
They found that after three years, the group’s patients significantly reduced their smoking, and had reduced respiratory infections and COPD exacerbations. Their respiratory physiology was not worsened by e-cigarette use and their overall health status and physical activity improved consistently.
Improved outcomes were even seen among dual users.
Co-researcher Dr. Caruso said, “the finding that COPD exacerbations were halved in patients who stopped or considerably reduced their smoking habit following switching to ECs was an important finding that confirms the potential for harm reversal of these products”.Going down the drain
Half of the UK’s regular smokers believe it is acceptable to discard cigarette butts down a drain, despite expert warnings about the risk they pose to marine wildlife, according to a Press Association report published by the Daily Mail and citing the results of a survey.
The survey, carried out for the environment charity Keep Britain Tidy, found that 52 percent of daily smokers polled said they did not see a problem with getting rid of their cigarette butts in this way.
Meanwhile, only 53 percent of those surveyed said they realised the butts would end up in the sea when dropped down the drain.
Thirty-nine percent of those polled said they had discarded a butt in this way during the past month, despite 77 percent of them saying they were concerned that toxins from their cigarettes could harm marine life.
The survey of 4,146 people – including 502 smokers – was carried out by YouGov to mark the launch of Keep Britain Tidy’s Flicking Blue Murder campaign, raising awareness of the link between cigarettes and the marine environment.
“Following Sir David Attenborough’s rallying cry to reduce plastic waste on Blue Planet II, we wanted to show how simple everyday behaviour can affect the environment,” said Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton.Advertising accusations
Tobacco companies are ‘secretly advertising’ cigarettes on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, according to allegations by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The allegations are based on the findings of a two-year investigation by the Campaign and Netnografica, a US-based consumer research and consulting firm specializing in online research.
According to a press note posted on the Campaign’s website, tobacco companies have been paying social media influencers – popular young people with large online followings – to post images of cigarettes and smoking as part of a marketing strategy documented in more than 40 countries.
The findings have been included in a petition sent to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by nine leading public health and medical groups.
‘The investigation documents more than 100 social media campaigns by multinational tobacco giants Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands,’ the Campaign’s note said.
‘Netnografica conducted interviews with young social media influencers who were paid to promote cigarettes online to millions of followers without disclosing that they were engaged in paid advertising (those interviewed were granted anonymity to participate in the research).’
The Campaign note said that the key findings from the investigation included:- ‘Tobacco companies seek out young people who have significant numbers of followers online and pay them to post photos featuring Marlboro, Lucky Strike and other cigarette brands. Social media influencers are trained on what cigarette brands to promote, when to post pictures for maximum exposure and how to take “natural photos” that do not look like staged advertisements. In Italy, influencers paid to promote Lucky Strike cigarettes were instructed to make sure health warnings on cigarette packs were not visible in photos posted online.
- ‘Tobacco companies organize parties and contests with cigarette brand sponsorships and encourage participants to post on their social media accounts.
- ‘Influencers are instructed to include specific hashtags promoting cigarettes on social media posts. The fact that hashtags used by social media influencers are mostly in English indicates tobacco companies are targeting a global audience that includes American youth.
- ‘Combined, these deceptive social media campaigns for tobacco products have been viewed more than 25 billion times worldwide – including 8.8 billion times in the United States, according to social media analytics commissioned as part of this investigation.’
Activists go after butts
A group of committed activists is targeting a product it describes as comprising the number-one man-made contaminant in the world’s oceans – cigarette butts, according to an NBC News story.
A leading tobacco industry academic, a California lawmaker and a worldwide surfing organization are among those arguing cigarette filters should be banned.
The nascent campaign hopes to be bolstered by linking activists focused on human health with those focused on the environment.
“It’s pretty clear there is no health benefit from filters,” said Thomas Novotny, a professor of public health at San Diego State University. “They are just a marketing tool. And they make it easier for people to smoke.
“It’s also a major contaminant, with all that plastic waste. It seems like a no-brainer to me that we can’t continue to allow this.”
However, it has proved difficult in the past to prevent the littering of cigarette butts.
According to the NBC News story, a California assemblyman who proposed a ban on cigarettes with filters couldn’t get the proposal out of committee. And while a New York state senator wrote legislation to create a rebate for butts returned to redemption centers, that idea stalled. San Francisco is said to have made the biggest inroad: a 60-cent per-pack fee to raise roughly $3 million a year to help defray the cost of cleaning up discarded cigarette filters, though the story did not say whether this initiative had met with success.
But cigarette butts have now fallen into the sights also of one of the nation’s biggest anti-smoking organizations, the Truth initiative, which last week used the nationally-televised Video Music Awards to launch a new campaign against these butts.
As in a couple of previous messages delivered via social media, the organization is going after ‘the most littered item in the world’.
The story said that tobacco companies, fearful of being held responsible for cigarette litter, had launched a number of initiatives.
But, in part, they appear to be up against recalcitrant smokers. Academics who followed prevention and clean-up campaigns said they encountered an essential problem: most smokers preferred to flick their butts.
‘In industry focus groups, some smokers said they thought filters were biodegradable, possibly made of cotton; others said they needed to grind the butts out on the ground, to assure they didn’t set a refuse can afire; others said they were so “disgusted” by the sight or smell of cigarette ashtrays, they didn’t want to dispose of their smokes that way,’ the story said. ‘In one focus group cited in industry documents, smokers said tossing their butts to the ground was “a natural extension of the defiant/rebellious smoking ritual”.’Seeing through the fug
A piece at spiked-online.com by Martin Cullip has brought some perspective to a row that has blown up over a recommendation contained in a report by the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on electronic cigarettes.
Cullip reported that the medical community had largely welcomed the Committee’s report, but that one aspect of it had led to uproar on social media. Many media outlets too had focused on this same small part of the report.
‘The objections all followed the same themes,’ Cullip wrote. ‘People were convinced that this would mean huge clouds of vapor in every place they visit. Many said e-cigarettes should “remain banned” in public places. Others declared that if vapers wanted to “kill themselves” they should do so in their own spaces and not subject others to “toxic” second-hand vapor.
‘Unwittingly,’ Cullip added, ‘every comment along those lines backed up the 66-page report’s conclusion that there is a huge misunderstanding about what e-cigarettes are and how they are used, and that this misunderstanding is hampering efforts to tempt smokers away from tobacco.
‘Firstly, vaping is not banned in public, as smoking is, and the government has consistently said it has no plans to change that.
‘Additionally, as the report clearly states, it has been “impossible to measure the risks from second-hand e-cigarette vapor because any potentially harmful compounds released into the surrounding area are so negligible”.
‘Restrictions on vaping in certain places have nothing to do with government and are not based on any public-health threat. Mostly, anti-vaping policies have been installed because those applying them don’t understand anything about e-cigarettes, so banning them is the simple and lazy option.
‘Pubs, businesses and, yes, train companies set their own policies. All the report is saying is that they should be better informed as to what e-cigarettes are and how they are encouraging smokers to quit at a rapid rate. Some may change their policy, some may not, but it is better that they understand the debate so that they can make a more informed decision.’Flavored comments
The ‘extraordinary and unprecedented’ flood of fake comments into the network hosting the public consultation process for the US Food and Drug Administration’s proposed regulation of flavors in tobacco products is much higher than previously was known, according to a story by Brent Stafford at regulatorwatch.com.
With the comment period now closed, staff at Regulations.gov were said to have confirmed to RegWatch the ‘stunning revelation’ that 95 percent of the 525,000 comments received into the system were BOT-submitted comments or were otherwise duplicate in nature.
Last month, regulatorwatch.com reported that, in a battle to destroy vaping, ‘bad actors’ had spammed more than 255,000 fake anti-vaping comments into the system overseeing the consultation process related to proposed regulations that could include restrictions on the use of flavors in e-liquids, or an outright flavor ban.
It was said that the assault nearly brought down federal servers and so bogged-down the internal network that it became next-to-impossible to process any submissions.
RegWatch described what happened as a massive assault on the credibility of the public consultation process.
Meanwhile, according to a Vaping 360 story last month relayed by the TMA, the 255,000 comments originated from four IP addresses.
At that time, the agency was said to have been able to stem the flow of comments but had not approved or published a single comment from the pending queue of hundreds of thousands of comments.
The spammed comments were unsigned and followed one of four templates, including three that used language copied from an April Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, and another from a form letter to California mayors created by the California Department of Public Health.
The comments were said to ‘critique the use of flavors and packaging to increase addictiveness and appeal’.
