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NO SMOKE
Turning Point has launched smoking cessation
pilots in six of its substance misuse services
across the country, backed by Public Health
England (PHE). Staff will be supported to
address smoking with service users and deliver
very brief advice (VBA) on giving up. ‘If someone
has sought help for alcohol and drug problems,
it makes sense that they are given the
opportunity to stop smoking at the same time
and further improve their chances of a healthy
life.’ said PHE’s director of alcohol, drugs and
tobacco, Rosanna O’Connor.
BRINK BOOST
Alcohol-free Liverpool venue The Brink (
DDN
,
December 2013, page 20) has won in the
‘social change and intervention’ category at
this year’s Merseyside Independent Business
Awards. ‘It’s our intention to make The Brink a
truly self-sustaining business and that means
reducing our reliance on grants and donations,’
said Action on Addiction Merseyside’s head of
service Karen Hemmings. ‘This win shows that
we are a serious business.’
E-ADS
Advertisers will be able to show e-cigarettes in
their TV commercials from later this month,
under a new ruling from the Committee of
Advertising Practice (CAP). Although TV adverts
for e-cigarettes are already allowed, the devices
are not permitted to be shown on screen. The
new ruling specifies that adverts must not target
non-smokers or under-18s and ‘avoid containing
anything that promotes the use of a tobacco
product or shows the use of a tobacco product
in a positive light’.
MULTIPLE IMPACT
Welfare reforms are having an ‘overwhelmingly
negative’ impact on people with multiple needs,
according to a Making Every Adult Matter
(MEAM)
Voices from the frontline
report. Among
the disturbing findings in
Evidence from the
frontline: how policy changes are affecting people
experiencing multiple needs
are reports of
vulnerable women turning to sex work,
subsistence theft or being forced to depend on
violent partners after losing their benefits.
Document at meam.org.uk
SMART IN LIQUIDATION
Trustees of Smart Recovery UK (SRUK) have
announced that the charity will cease trading
and go into liquidation after a dispute with its
US-based licensor (ADASHN) could not be
resolved. Their statement said that ‘overall
SRUK has been a great success’ and expressed
their ‘best wishes and hopes for all those
seeking recovery within the UK.’
Viewers of the key World Cup broadcasts this
summer saw one example of alcohol marketing for
every minute of playing time, according to a report
from Alcohol Concern. The charity is asking the
government to ‘consider whether the harms
outweigh the financial benefits’, as the audience
included ‘millions of children and young people’.
Researchers studied six matches – two shown on
the BBC and four on ITV – including all of the England
games, the semi-finals and the final, with the
broadcasts recorded and coded according to the
number of visual references to alcohol, including
logos. They found an average of just under 100
alcohol references per programme, plus ten alcohol
commercials when the games were shown on ITV.
Around 80 per cent of the references were from
electronic pitch-side sponsor boards, with more than
two-thirds for official World Cup beer sponsors
Budweiser, while the 39 alcohol adverts shown
during the four commercially broadcast games
totalled more than 12 minutes.
‘It is estimated half the games analysed were viewed
by more than one million under-18s,’ says the
document, a figure within the existing rules on whether
alcohol advertising is appropriate. ‘Alcohol marketing in
sport has become so ubiquitous that it often goes
unnoticed,’ it adds, and calls for the government to
legislate for the phased removal of alcohol marketing
from sporting events starting with football.
‘Alcohol marketing is linked to consumption,
particularly in under-18s,’ said Alcohol Concern
programme policy manager Tom Smith. ‘The volume
of alcohol marketing in sport, especially in football
which is popular with children and younger people, is
enormous. If a million children can be exposed to
alcohol marketing on TV and no rules be broken, we
should also look at whether the existing rules that
are meant to protect our kids are really working.’
The charity has also announced that Professor Sir
Ian Gilmore – chair of the UK Alcohol Health Alliance
and a former president of the Royal College of
Physicians – has been appointed its new president.
‘He will bring an invaluable wealth of knowledge and
experience,’ said chief executive Jackie Ballard.
Meanwhile, Public Health England (PHE) has
launched its ‘liver disease profiles’ tool which
demonstrates stark regional variations, with male
death rates up to four times higher in some local
authority areas than others.
Liver disease is the only major cause of death that
continues to rise in England while falling in other
European countries, with 90 per cent of cases caused
by either alcohol, obesity or hepatitis B and C. One in
ten people in England who die in their 40s now die of
liver disease, while Alcohol Concern’s updated ‘map
of alcohol harm’ shows that the total number of
alcohol-related NHS admissions in England – when
inpatient, outpatient and A&E visits are all included –
stood at just below the 10m mark in 2012-13.
‘Liver disease is a public health priority because
young lives are being needlessly lost,’ said PHE’s liver
disease lead Professor Julia Verne. ‘We must do more
to raise awareness, nationally and locally, and this is
why it is so important for the public and health
professionals to understand their local picture.’
New PHE figures on alcohol treatment, however,
showed a 5 per cent increase in the number of people
in treatment in the last year, with more than 90 per
cent waiting less than three weeks. The numbers
were encouraging, said director of drugs and alcohol
Rosanna O’Connor, but there was ‘much more to do’.
Alcohol Marketing at the FIFA World Cup 2014:
a frequency analysis, and alcohol harm map at
www.alcoholconcern.org.uk
NEWS IN BRIEF
November 2014 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 5
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
‘Millions’ of children exposed to
World Cup alcohol marketing
VALUE FOR MONEY?
As DDN went to
press, a major Commons debate on the UK
drug laws was taking place, the first for 40
years. The debate was secured with cross-
party backing by Caroline Lucas MP (DDN,
August 2013, page 16), following a 130,000-
strong petition calling for MPs to support
an impact assessment and cost benefit
analysis of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.
‘This debate is not about being for or
against drugs reform,’ said Lucas. ‘It’s about
making sure we have the best possible laws
based on the best possible evidence.’ The
same day saw the long-delayed publication
of a Home Office report concluding that
punitive drug laws failed to curb levels of
use. Full report in next month’s DDN.