Action on Smoking Health (UK)

🚨The new @healthfoundation.bsky.social policy tracker reviews the progress of policies across government that shape our health, with summaries of key policies and ratings for 14 policy areas. The tool helps to understand the scale of government ambition and what progress has been made on delivery.

🚨 Our latest report reveals that tobacco industry funded research appears to exaggerate the size of the UK’s illicit tobacco market by three times compared to HMRC’s official estimates.

📰You may have seen headlines that highlight new ONS data suggesting that 1 million people who have never smoked now vape. It's an alarming stat, but does it really show what it appears to? The short answer is that this isn't what the survey found, & in this blog ASH CE Hazel Cheeseman explains why🤔

What can online harms regulation learn from tobacco control? 🚭 📱 In our new blog, Mark Rowland, former CE of the Mental Health Foundation & outgoing Chair of the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership, explores how lessons from tobacco control could shape the regulation of social media companies.

The BMJ has published a comprehensive new report setting out how the Government consultation on the packaging, appearance and display of tobacco and vaping products was subject to a significant amount of industry lobbying.

The latest figures from the ONS show that for the first time ever, smoking prevalence in the UK has fallen below 10%. 🎉 The data shows that 4.9 million people in the UK currently smoke (9.8% of the population) following a long-term downward trend in smoking prevalence. 🚭

Public health, not profits, should drive the regulation of tobacco and nicotine products.

Over 1,7k health and education representatives have signed a letter to SoS for Health and Social Care supporting Government proposals on the packaging, appearance and display of tobacco and nicotine products. View the letter and the full list of signatories here: ash.org.uk/uploads/Open...

Today is 100 days until the smoke-free generation comes into force on 1st January 2027, and new data from ASH shows that 62% of 11–17-year-olds who have ever smoked say that, if they could go back in time, they would not start smoking. 📆🚭

As ASH CE @hazelcheeseman.bsky.social says, smoking is an addiction that overwhelmingly starts in childhood, and rather than waiting for children to become addicted, the landmark smoke-free generation policy gives us the opportunity to prevent that addiction from taking hold in the first place.

ASH CE Hazel Cheeseman has written to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regarding advertising by British American Tobacco (BAT). The advertisement relates to the Government's current consultation on the packaging of nicotine pouches, and reproduces a quotation attributed to ASH.

🎥 Watch our Policy and Public Affairs Manager John Waldron give evidence to the London Assembly Health Committee on youth vaping.

Last week the APPG on Smoking & Health and the APPG on Poverty & Inequality hosted a roundtable on smoking and poverty in Parliament. Attendees heard from Gillian & Hannah, experts by lived experience, about the toll that smoking placed on their finances, relationships & health.

We were pleased to host an event yesterday bringing together 150 colleagues from across the South of England, focusing on how we can work together to implement the upcoming smokefree generation policy, and maximise the opportunity that this presents for public health. Thank you to all our speakers.

We know smoking causes poverty. So why isn’t it treated like a cost-of-living issue?🚬 In this blog, ASH Senior Policy Officer, Noah Traill explains how smoking contributes to financial hardship & how a smokefree roadmap could eliminate this preventable contributor to the cost-of-living crisis.

A Cochrane review has concluded that vapes are a highly effective way to quit smoking, helping more people to quit than other methods. The review also confirmed that vaping is "substantially" less harmful than smoking. Read the review here: www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10....

Listen to ASH Public Affairs Lead @helenduffyash.bsky.social explain on LBC Radio why it’s important that cigars are included in the Government’s current proposals to extend plain packaging across all tobacco products. You can listen to the full interview here: www.globalplayer.com/catchup/lbc/...

There's been media attention today about a review by RCPCH highlighting evidence on vaping & the risks it poses to young people. On BBC Breakfast, ASH Deputy CE Caroline Cerny said young people shouldn't use vapes. However, it's important that vapes are accessible for adult smokers who want to quit.