Podcasts about Public Health England

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation is with a panel from politics, policy, academia and investment to discuss what we need from the new government, including from the new food strategy and the mission boards, to really incentivize a healthier food system and ensure everyone can access and afford a healthy diet. The episode is part of our recipe for change campaign led by Sustain, The Food Foundation, Obesity Health Alliance, with a wider coalition of nearly 50 supporting organisations. The campaign is calling for the government to introduce a new tax on food companies to encourage them to improve the healthiness of the food they sell us and play their part in supporting our health. To discuss the opportunities of the new government and what is to come, Hannah is joined by Alison Tedstone, former Department of Health and Public Health England chief nutritionist; conservative peer, James Bethell; Adam Briggs from the Health Foundation and Antony Yousefian, a partner at The First Thirty Ventures. Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter. Click here for more on Recipe for Change, read its latest briefing here and about public support for Government intervention to ensure a healthier food industry here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.Prof. Isabel Oliver is the Director General of Science and Research & Chief Scientific Officer, at the UK Health Security Agency ( UKHSA - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency ). The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a government agency in the United Kingdom, responsible since April 2021 for England-wide public health protection and infectious disease capability and replacing Public Health England. It is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Prior to this role, Prof. Oliver was Director of National Infection Service at Public Health England (PHE) having held other roles previously in the organization. She is also professor and co-director of the National Institute for Health Research, Health Protection Research Unit on Behavioral Science and Evaluation, at the University of Bristol and an honorary professor at University College, London. Prof. Oliver has broad research interests ranging from infectious diseases epidemiology and the evaluation of public health interventions and services, to the surveillance, prevention and control of infectious diseases and environmental hazards, antibiotic resistance, emergency preparedness and response, sexual health and the mental health impact of major incidents. She leads the National Study of Flooding and Health, a longitudinal study aimed at understanding the impact of flooding on mental health and wellbeing. Prof. Oliver received an MSc, Public Health, from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London and a Medical Degree from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Support the Show.

In the one hundred and forty fifth episode we explore the Affirming the Consequent Fallacy, starting with Trump claiming more COVID proved their testing was better, Fake News was perfect for CNN, and the Democrats were damaging the country.In Mark's British Politics Corner we look at Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson questioning Matt Hancock's motives for abolishing Public Health England and Lard Marland defending Tory donor Frank Hester against accusations of racism.In the Fallacy in the Wild section, we check out examples from ALF, Cheers, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.Jim and Mark go head to head in Fake News, the game in which Mark has to guess which one of three Trump quotes Jim made up.Then we talk about Biden's SOTU and Katie Britt's response, and all the other court thingies which went badly for Trump since last we spoke.And finally, we round up some of the other crazy Trump stories from the past week.The full show notes for this episode can be found at https://fallacioustrump.com/ft145 You can contact the guys at pod@fallacioustrump.com, on Twitter @FallaciousTrump, or facebook at facebook.com/groups/fallacioustrumpSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/fallacious-trump/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Over the past few years, the health and wellness space has been flooded with the concept of the "gut microbiome," or the ecosystem of microorganisms in our stomachs. Probiotics, which have become prominent on social media, are said to strengthen this bacterial community and can result in benefits like improved nutrient absorption, skin inflammation, and even mental acuity. However, this connection of the gut to the mental sphere has actually been shown in research as the "gut-brain axis" (GBA). In fact, according to a 2015 journal from the Annals of Gastroenterology, a bidirectional relationship between our gut and our brain has been shown to influence our responses to anxiety, stress, and even functions of memory through interactions with the central nervous system.We are joined today by behavioral neuroscientist, toxicologist, neuropharmacologist, and international fashion model Dr. Aya Osman. She received her BSc in Biomedical Sciences with Honors from the University of London, MSc in Toxicology focusing on the role of adenosine and glutamate receptors in cocaine addiction from the University of Surrey, and PhD in Toxicology and Neuropharmacology from the University of Surrey, where she investigated the development of brain opioid and oxytocin receptor systems in response to early life dietary manipulation. She then worked as a Toxicologist at the Centre for Radiation, Chemical, and Environmental Hazards for the governmental body Public Health England. Dr. Osman completed her postdoctoral research fellowship at the Friedman Brain Institute and the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she now serves as an Assistant Professor, focusing on the role of gut microbiome changes in brain development and the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders.Livestream Air Date: April 25, 2023Follow Aya Osman, PhD: InstagramFollow Friends of Franz Podcast: Website, Instagram, FacebookFollow Christian Franz Bulacan (Host): Instagram, YouTubeThankful to the season's brand partners: Covry, House of M Beauty, Nguyen Coffee Supply, V Coterie, Skin By Anthos, Halmi, By Dr Mom, LOUPN, Baisun Candle Co., RĒJINS, Twrl Milk Tea, 1587 Sneakers

Professor Ibrahim Abubakar, FMedSci is Pro-Provost (Health), Dean, Faculty of Population Health Sciences and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, University College London ( UCL - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/tb/people/professor-ibrahim-abubakar ). He was previously director of the UCL Institute for Global Health until July 2021. Prof. Abubakar was appointed National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator in 2017 and elected Fellow Academy of Medical Sciences in 2020. He led the UCL Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, UCL-TB and was a senior investigator at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit. He was also head of TB at Public Health England and prior to his appointment at UCL, he was Professor in Health Protection at the Norwich Medical School. Prof. Abubakar qualified in medicine in 1992 and initially trained in general medicine before specializing in public health medicine. His academic public health training was undertaken at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia. Prof. Abubakar is a member of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board ( https://www.gpmb.org/ ), Chair of Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration health, Lancet Nigeria Commission and the NIHR Global Health Professorship Committee. He also served as chair of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis until 2019 and of the Wellcome Trust Expert Review Group on Population Health until 2022. Support the show

Hey everyone! Happy New Year and welcome back to the Can I Have Another Snack? podcast, where we talk about food, bodies, and identity, especially through the lens of parenting. I'm Laura Thomas, I'm an anti-diet registered nutritionist and I also write the Can I Have Another Snack newsletter.I am really excited to share this week's conversation; it is the perfect antidote to the January diet culture hellscape that we're all living through. My guest today is gender studies professor and author Dr. Karen Throsby, whose book Sugar Rush (affiliate link) was an absolute highlight for me in 2023. I have been recommending it to everyone. Karen's thesis in the book is essentially how the public health and popular science discourse around sugar obscures the social and structural inequality responsible for health disparities and by doing so, actively embeds it further into the fabric of society. I've split this conversation into two parts - so you'll get the second half of the conversation in two weeks. But today we talk about how the conversation around sugar being bad for you is framed with so much certainty, whereas the science holds a lot more doubt and ambiguity. We talk about how nostalgic fantasies of a past where nobody ate sugar and everyone climbed trees all day long erases the unpaid labour of women, and how even modern day efforts to eliminate sugar are dependent on unequal distribution of household labour and are framed as work that is pleasurable, or else women get scapegoated as bad mothers. So much great stuff in this episode and like I said, I'll share part two soon, where we get into the rhetoric around ultra-processed food, how the so-called war on ‘obes*ty' fails to live up to it's own aims and loads more. Before we get to Karen just a quick reminder that the entire CIHAS universe is reader and listener supported, meaning I literally can't do this work without your support. If you like what we do here and want to help keep the lights on then you can upgrade your account to become a paying subscriber - it's £5/month or £50/year. Not only do you support the time and labour that goes into producing the newsletter and podcast, but you get access to our weekly community discussion thread Snacky Bits. You can comment on posts, and you get access to my monthly Dear Laura column and the full archive. You'll also see a bit more bonus content on free essays that's just for paid subscribers in the coming months, so make sure you're signed up to get in on that action. Head to laurathomas.substack.com or check out the show notes for that link. Follow Laura on Instagram here.Subscribe to Laura's newsletter here.Enrol in the Raising Embodied Eaters course here.Here's the transcript in full:Laura: Karen, I'd love if you could begin by sharing a bit about you and the work that you do.Karen: Yes, thank you. So I'm a sociologist, I'm a professor of gender studies at the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. And throughout my 20 plus years of career, I've been looking at issues of gender, bodies, technology and health.So I've done work on reproductive technology, on surgical weight management, I've done work on endurance sports and what you do to a body when you engage in endurance sports socially, what does that mean? And then most recently, I've been working on what I've been calling the social life of sugar. How can we think about sugar in a moment when sugar is being attacked as a kind of health demon, the constant in my career has been this idea about bodies and how we try and change bodies or how bodies change and then most recently in relation to food and particularly sugar,Laura: Tell us a little bit more about that because, you know, you kind of say this almost quite flippantly. “Oh yeah, I've been doing sugar”, but that's like a whole like undertaking in terms of research and then the book that came out of that. So, could you maybe tell us a little bit about the research that you did that went into, you know, studying the social life of sugar and, and maybe a little bit about the process of writing the book as well?Karen: Yes, of course. So, it started from observation, which is where a lot of research comes from – of noticing just a lot of sugar talk in the media, for example. And so, I decided to look at it more formally. So, I actually did a, I started with newspapers and I looked at newspaper coverage from 2000. So I ended up looking to 2020 when I searched for newspaper articles in nine UK newspapers. So across the political spectrum and broadsheet, tabloids as well, looking for articles of quite substantive articles like sort of 500 words or more with the word sugar in the title.And then I filtered those. So I took out all of the irrelevant things. So there's lots of mentions of Alan Sugar, uh, for example, lots of sugar metaphors, like a ‘spoonful of sugar' that you get in business reporting. And I took all those out. And then I kind of looked at the pattern and what you see from 2000 to about 2012, it's very, a very low level of coverage, just trickling along very low.And then in 2013, it starts to shoot up. And then by 2016, it's really high and it peaks there. And then it drops off a little bit, picks up again at 2018 and then slowly falls away. And so I took 2013 through to towards the end of 2020 as the period of study, and that ended up with about 550 newspaper articles that then became my objective analysis of what's happening with sugar.And then I dug out anything else I could find. So policy documents and newspaper, medical articles, self-help books, popular science tracks – anything I could find about sugar. And that became the body of data that I then was analyzing just to see: how is sugar being talked about? Who is being excluded when we talk about sugar?Trying to see it, not literally, but thinking about what is sugar doing socially when we talk about it.Laura: Yeah. It's, it's an, I'm just thinking of this from a research perspective. It's a huge undertaking. I'm just imagining you going through your Nvivo now, it's just like, Karen: exactly. You're right there. I mean, it was an unusual project for me, because all my other projects have been broadly ethnographic. So I've actually gone and observed groups, a social, social organization, and so on, um, or done interviews and things like that. So this was a departure for me that it's very text based. It's looking at how it's reproduced and represented in text, in different kinds of text.But you ask the same questions, what is a newspaper trying to achieve in writing in this particular way? What is a popular science track trying to achieve in writing about sugar in a particular way? And then you can start thinking about, so what does sugar mean in different contexts, but also what kind of work does sugar enable us to do socially?Laura: Mm hmm. So can you tell us a little bit more about the sort of, maybe just like the headline conclusions that you drew out with this and then and we can kind of get into some of the more specifics in a second. Karen: Yeah, I mean the bottom line for me was that sugar and what I'm calling the attack on sugar, this targeting that happens quite suddenly around this time and and taking over from fat in that sense as being the enemy that this talk around sugar appears to be in relation to everyone. It's seen as a problem, a problem that we all have. So you'll see the opening line of, there's a Public Health England document in 2015. And the opening line is ‘we're eating too much sugar', and it's bad for our health. Right? So it seems like it's everybody's problem.But actually, what happens when you do that is that you ignore social inequality. And so the core argument of the book is that actually by focusing on a single nutrient – like sugar – as the cause of multiple problems, you actually make inequalities worse rather than better. Because it actually relies on erasing inequality from the start to say, we eat too much sugar.So a sociologist would always want to ask, well, who is ‘we' here? And in fact, what we see by looking at the newspaper coverage and so on, is those who are deemed to be eating ‘too much sugar' are also those who are already the most marginalized in society. So it provides cover for actually an intensification of attacks on marginalized groups in society. And I argue in the book that that rise that happens in 2012, 2013, is actually related to the implementation of austerity measures in the UK, which is the retrenchment of benefits, the cutting welfare and so on, and targeting particular groups as somehow as ‘over consumers' of public resources.And therefore they're easily translated as ‘over consumers' in other ways. And so that this figure of the kind of poor, fat, irresponsible, individual as a caricature comes up as kind of someone who can be blamed and targeted. So the argument in the book is really that by focusing on a single nutrient, you not only ignore those groups, but you actually compound the inequalities that they're already experiencing.Laura: Yeah, you're furthering the marginalization and the stigmatization of those groups. There are a few things within what you've just said there that I wanted to kind of come back and revisit if it's okay. And the first is this idea of certainty. You know, you say at the beginning of those Public Health England documents, and I think throughout the headlines and the media reporting and some of the documentaries that you discuss, there's this thread of certainty.Certainty that sugar is bad for us. Certainty that sugar makes us fat. Certainty that fat is even a bad thing in the first place. Can you talk to us a bit more about how certainty is used in this way as a sort of political device to drive discourse in a specific direction?Karen: Yeah, that's a really good question.And what we can see with these certainty claims, I mean, that sugar is bad for you. That's the core claim is that it's bad for us. But actually, when you look at the arguments against sugar, there isn't very much agreement over what kind of problem it is in the first place. There's two core ways that this plays out.The first is that it's bad for you because it makes you fat. Because it's empty calories. It's more calories than you need. So that's why it's bad for you. It could be anything, but it just happens to be something that is very calorie dense without bringing other nutritional benefit. The other version of the problem of sugar is that it is actively toxic.So not just a source of calories as much as any other, but that it's actively disrupting; it's creating a metabolic dysfunction and disruption. That it creates this chaos around your management of blood sugar and brain chemistry and everything. And they seem to be in opposition to each other, but in fact have managed to coalesce around the certainty that sugar is bad; almost as if it doesn't really matter why it's bad, but it just is.And it's created a kind of lowest common denominator platform that brings everyone together. And so it's provided a space where multiple vested interests can meet. So politicians, for example, have a vested interest in this kind of narrative because it provides targets of blame. It provides a site where you can appear to be doing something about a problem.And people who are writing books saying that it's toxic are invested in that because they have a kind of a brand that is then created. And then there's a whole diet industry that is invested in the idea of empty calories and, you know, and, and so on. And so I'm not suggesting it's a terrible plot. Right.I'm just saying it provides an opportunity for multiple interests to come together. And I think there's a number of ways this is facilitated. So, for example, around the idea that ‘ob*sity' is a disaster. Is an awful thing. Tthat ‘ob*sity' is terrible. Around the idea that sugar is ‘addictive'. Yeah. Which is a very common thing that's used.Again, what constitutes addiction is extremely vague. And then there's a nostalgia that comes back. We didn't use to eat like this. Sort of in the 1950s, post war rationing. Although we didn't eat like this. We all just ran around all day and we never ate sugar and we were all fit and healthy. And so those things kind of tie these together to create the certainty that sugar is bad.And that we eat too much of it and it's bad for our health. And so certainty for me, this certainty is manufactured and it is providing political cover for doubt. Which, actually, when you look at the science, science is always much more riddled with doubt and uncertainty than the claims that are made for it.Um, and often that doubt is in the journal articles and so on, but then it gets sort of extracted as a certainty. And so we get this, this sense of certainty that creates an imperative to act. A sense of urgency. For example, and sugar by sort of, as its proxy, is framed as a problem about which something must be done.And so in a sense, then, the need is to be seen to act. And so you could have an intervention, say, like the sugar tax, um, which I would argue is much more about being seen to do something that actually achieving its stated goal. And so I think what this sense of certainty does is it provides cover, and it also erases the inconvenient uncertainties around why do some people eat in particular ways? What are the social reasons? What are the inequalities and the other factors that determine how people choose to eat? And I think those get erased by that certainty. So it's very functional in that way.Laura: Mm hmm. Everything just gets flattened down and collapsed in this, yeah, really problematic way.I mean, there's, there was so much that we could kind of get into what you just said there. But I suppose one section of the book, I mean, I enjoyed all of your book, but I really enjoyed the section where you talked about nostalgia as well, that you just mentioned there in this kind of like going back to a time where we didn't have much sugar in our diet and we, you know, we had all these home cooked meals, everything was, you know, freshly pulled from the ground and we could just climb trees all day.First of all, what kind of utopia were these men living in anyway? But secondly, I think the part that I really appreciated there was how you talked about the erasure of women's labor in making that a reality in the first place. Do you want to just say a little bit about that? Because I want to come back to gender in a bigger, more expansive sense in a second, but I would just be interested while we're there.Karen: In that particular context, you know, there is this vision that it's never, it's never located strictly in time, but it clearly speaks to some kind of post war, sort of immediate post war imagination – fantasy really – that rests, if we were to accept that this vision is true, that everyone was running around, burning off calories, never snacking, coming home to splendid, home cooked, home grown meals.What isn't discussed, of course, is who cooked these meals? How does this food appear? You know, this, this handcrafted food. And of course, that is the completely unrecognized and largely unpaid labor of women. That a lot of these fantasies around the sugar free life are built on this idea. That food just somehow happens that what's often referred to as real food.It just sort of happens. And then the labor of women is completely written out. Which of course then leaves standing that expectation that women should do that work because it doesn't even count as work because; it's just kind of what's done. I mean, interestingly, the other, the other dimension to the nostalgia is a much longer view, which is this idea of a kind of paleolithic past, but again, is never located strictly in time, but definitely pre-agricultural revolution, where we were hunter gatherers and basically it was based on times of plenty. So you would only eat fruit when the berries came out and that would be it. But of course, again, what gets written out here is there's a great focus on hunting and on meat consumption, but actually it erases the work of women who would have been doing the gathering and the preparing of food.And there's, there's interesting archaeological research that points out that actually We find bones from hunting and tools that were used to hunt. But a lot of the preparation of vegetables and fruit and so on leaves no trace. And so the work of women is literally erased in these stories.Yeah. And, and it just disappears.Laura: And presumably as well, there's a lot of embodied wisdom that gets kind of passed through generations to know like, which berries are safe to eat. And there's another layer to it, it feels like there, that that's also being erased.Karen: Yes. Who are the bearers of knowledge? Who teaches? The next generation and so on is lost in the celebrations of hunting cultures, just as much as it's lost in this, this kind of post-war fantasy. Laura: Yeah. Well, actually, since, since we're here, let's maybe let's stay on the topic of, of gender and, and labor, because I think it has implications, right, for the conversations that we're having in this moment around whether it's eliminating sugar from the diet or ultra processed foods from the diet or whatever it is that I think a lot of that rests on women's unpaid labor to make that come to fruition.Again, that's something that I think is completely left out of this conversation on, generally in nutrition, it's left out of the conversation in terms of who's actually doing this work. And I wrote a series about ultra processed foods a little while ago. And that was my central question; who's growing grains and soaking beans? And, uh, you know, like planning menus and doing the shopping? And, you know, even things like who is making sure that this fresh food is being eaten before it gets spoiled?And, you know, that there is a lot of labor there that just kind of gets kind glossed over. And so I wondered if you could tell us some of your thoughts on the work of eradicating sugar and how that's gendered and specifically how mothers shoulder that additional reproductive labor. Karen: No, it's a really important point.I think, so there's, there's a genre of newspaper story that I call the mortified mother story. Laura: I love this. Karen: Which is when the mother, it's always the mother, and it is always households with children. Sort of heterosexual households with children. And what the woman does is she records all the food that the family members eat.Sometimes it's just the children. Sometimes it's the whole family including the male partner. She records everything that they eat and then the sugar is calculated and then a nutritionist or some kind of sort of dietary expert will come in and basically correct her and sort of tell her where she's going wrong and it's always a kind of shock story.‘I had no idea I was giving them so much sugar and often, you know, I thought this was a I thought cereal bars were really healthy'. But actually they're loaded with sugar. And so those kind of revelations. And then she has a kind of confessional moment where she sort of says, ‘oh, you know, this is terrible.I've done all of these things wrong. And now I'm going to do, I'm going to calculate everything online. I'm going to cook their breakfast from scratch. I'm going to do this, that, and the other.' And what's really striking about the story. Well, first of all, it's always women. The very kind of deliberate harnessing of guilt and shame that's cultivated. I haven't seen a single story of this kind or in any of the self help books that I looked at or any source that I looked at where a redistribution of household labor was part of the recommendations, right? So it's never there. It's about her doing it. But what's clever about it in a way is that it's done in such a way as to make it not work.It's not a kind of work because it's seen as pleasure. As leisure. So she, she is being a mother and therefore, you know, she, it's meant to be, she's gaining pleasure from acquiring these new skills, from being a better mother and so on. Learning these new cooking techniques and things. And so it ends up being not coded as work, which is, uh, you know, like the perfect patriarchal fantasy and do it because they love it so much.And so it's never even, ‘oh dear, I'm really sorry. You have to do all this extra work'. It's ‘lucky you'. Like having to get even more pleasure from cooking and but it's not just cooking. This is the thing that you alluded to as well. It's the planning; it's the shopping; it's the knowing; the remembering.And often in the case of men, actually, one of the responsibilities of women is actually to change their tastes, if you like, without them noticing. So they're not inconvenienced by it. They don't even have to be on board. So they kind of sneak lower sugar things in so that it won't be noticed, so that they never have to actually engage with the process, but it still gets done.And so the guilt and shame and responsibility of this also then makes it impossible to refuse it or hard to refuse it in the sense of, you know, if a good mother does this, what does it mean for someone who doesn't? Can't do it for whatever reason. And of course, all of these things that are recommended, um, in terms of sugar reduction are really oriented towards a middle class set of tastes and dispositions.They assume that you have the money to keep a stock store cupboard of what can often be quite expensive items. That you have a fridge and freezer that you can afford to run. That you have a stove that you can run, that you, you know, that you can have on. And all of these things that you have the time, you're not working three jobs for very little money. But you have the time to cook and prepare and soak the beans and do all these things. And so the gendering of it, then it also ties to a whole set of class expectations about what a good mother is.Laura: I think it's really interesting in the context of sort of, I don't know, third wave feminism and all the rhetoric around how, you know, women are liberated in so many different ways and, and all the, everything that you're talking about.It sort of, I guess, covers up the, the sort of the double burden of work that women now face inside and outside of the home. And how women, particularly mothers, are still scapegoated for a lot of society's problems. Which, you know, we could debate whether or not ‘obesity' is a problem in the first place. And sugar consumption, is a problem in the first place. But I'm just thinking about how much we still blame mothers. You know, there was um, a whole sort of theory of, well there's, there's many different mother blame theories, isn't there? Sort of ‘refrigerator mums' causing autism. The, you know, the sort of sexist and fatphobic and racist sort of narrative around black mothers causing high levels of, of, um, unemployment in black, in black men. There's the, um, the mother blame for, you know, anorexia, that was, that was a big one. And then sort of in the mid-century, we see ‘ob*sity' start to become blamed on mothers, which was kind of, it seems like a, a reaction to undernutrition being the issue then moving to so called ‘overnutrition'. So it feels like on one hand it's something that's very like confined to history, like it's something in the past. It's actually still going on, it's alive and well. There's academic papers being published by reputable institutions, like there was a paper I found from 2019 that blamed working mothers for higher weight children.There was 2022 paper, saying that children's weight was dependent not on how much ultra processed food they ate, but on how much ultra processed foods their mothers ate. So then indicating this sort of butterfly effect, right? That the smallest flap of a wing can cause, you know, ‘catastrophe', again, in inverted commas, for your child.So that was just a bit of a download of my brain. I'm curious to hear what it kind of like, for you. I mean,Karen: I think, I think that's a really good point. I mean, for me, this kind of raises what we could think of as a dilemma, the dilemma of femininity in itself, that you can never get it right. Right. You're either too focused on your body or not enough, not focused enough on your body.You know, there's, there's always that fine line that women have to walk in so many ways. And I think this comes out in the food. So one of the things I was looking for when I was looking at these stories, the, the, um, these mortified mother stories was to find one, see if I could find one where the mother was doing okay.And I found, I found one where actually the, the, the expert couldn't really find anything wrong with the diet. They ate lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. A lot of home cooking. Um, you know, they had this, this, what would count as a healthy diet in normative terms. But then there's just this moment at the end where they say, ‘aha'. And because she had a daughter, the nutritionist said, but you don't want her to become obsessed.You don't want the daughter to become obsessed because she'll get an eating disorder. So you need to relax. And not be over strict on sugar, you've got to give them treats sometimes, otherwise she'll go down this very dangerous path. So, again, you can control sugar for others, but not too much because you don't want to become obsessed and risk eating disorders.And so, she literally can't ever, and so her confession is, yeah, you're right, I have been a bit strict, I'll make sure we have some treats. And so you, there's really no, no winning. I think the other thing that I thought about as you were talking, was the fact that women themselves are seen as hyper vulnerable to sugar.Yeah. They themselves are seen as having no control over sugar. And a bit like children, actually. They're seen as being kind of incontinent in the face of sugar. And I found quite a few studies that aimed to show how women just have no kind of…couldn't do anything in the face of, in the face of sugar.And there's, um, uh, David Gillespie, who writes about giving up sugar. He, writes about this and kind of says, you know, ‘you need to go cold turkey'. You've got to, you know, just get it out of your system. And that for men, this can happen quite quickly, but for women, it can take several months. And then doesn't really explain it.It's sort of, there's a mention about hormones. Because that's, you know, when, you know, that's like the go to for everything. But there's no real explanation. And so there is this idea of women as needing to exercise control over the family's diet. But also of being quite dangerous in the sense that they're, they're seen as always perpetually out of control as well. And so kind of not to be trusted in that. Laura: We are the witches witches, Karen: Exactly. And so it's another dimension of the not being able to win. Like, for women in the field of diet and body, body management, it's very hard to find a position where women could be said to be kind of safe.Laura: Absolutely. I have kind of, you know, conversations with friends about this push and pull that we experience particularly as mothers, but women broadly.And you know, the thing I would say to my friend is like, the game is rigged, right? We cannot win. We can't win at all. So we have to figure out something that, that feels authentic to our values.​Alright team. That is where we're leaving off for part 1 of this episode. I'll share part 2 in two weeks' time where we're talking about the sugar tax we have in the UK, how the so-called war on ‘ob*sity' has to constantly renew itself like Madonna to make itself relevant and how ultra-processed foods are becoming the new sugar. Plus you'll hear our snacks so make sure you're subscribed, either on Substack at laurathomas.substack.com or on your podcast player. And if you want to support the show further and get full access to the Can I Have Another Snack universe, you can become a paid subscriber. It's just £5/ month or £50 for the year. As well as tons of cool perks you make this work sustainable and we couldn't do it without the support of paying subscribers. Head to laurathomas.substack.com to learn more and sign up today! Can I Have Another Snack is hosted by me, Laura Thomas, Our sound engineer is Lucy DearloveFiona Bray formats and schedules all of our posts and makes sure they're on time every week. Our funky artwork is by Caitlin Preyser and the music is by Jason Barkhouse. Thanks for listening. ICYMI this week: The ‘Do Diet'* Kitchen joy, making the table a safe space, and trusting kids bodies* Fundamentals: Why Teaching Kids That Food is ‘Healthy' Can Backfire* What Are Your Fave Size-Inclusive Swimwear Brands? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laurathomas.substack.com/subscribe

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss emerging evidence in e-cigarette research interview Eve Taylor, King's College London. Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Dr Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Eve Taylor who is working on a PhD in the Nicotine Research Group at King's College London. Eve also works as a research assistant on projects including the International Tobacco Control Project and the Public Health England e-cigarette evidence reviews. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce interviews Eve Taylor at the E-Cigarette Summit, 16th November at the Royal College of Physicians, London. Eve discusses packaging regulations and the role that cigarette packaging and e-cigarette packaging have on the appeal to young people and adults. She draws on findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) survey data. The survey data from ASH shows that young people are less interested in trying e-cigarettes in standardised packaging and colours compared to branded packaging. However, changing the packaging does not affect adults, including adults that use combustible cigarettes. Eve discusses the role of flavour names and brand names. The interview highlights that the consequences of any changes in policy need to be thought through and any changes in regulations need to be clear and easily enforceable. This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches. Our literature searches carried out November 1st 2023 identified: four new ongoing studies (ISRCTN82413824, NCT06063421, NCT06077240, NCT06088862); one linked paper by Prell et al (10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071099) and two reports to be classified. For further details see our webpage under 'Monthly search findings': https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/electronic-cigarettes-for-smoking-cessation-cochrane-living-systematic-review-1 For more information on the full Cochrane review updated in November 2022 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub7/full This podcast is supported by Cancer Research UK.

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss emerging evidence in e-cigarette research interview Eve Taylor, King's College London. Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Dr Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Eve Taylor who is working on a PhD in the Nicotine Research Group at King's College London. Eve also works as a research assistant on projects including the International Tobacco Control Project and the Public Health England e-cigarette evidence reviews. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce interviews Eve Taylor at the E-Cigarette Summit, 16th November at the Royal College of Physicians, London. Eve discusses packaging regulations and the role that cigarette packaging and e-cigarette packaging have on the appeal to young people and adults. She draws on findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) survey data. The survey data from ASH shows that young people are less interested in trying e-cigarettes in standardised packaging and colours compared to branded packaging. However, changing the packaging does not affect adults, including adults that use combustible cigarettes. Eve discusses the role of flavour names and brand names. The interview highlights that the consequences of any changes in policy need to be thought through and any changes in regulations need to be clear and easily enforceable. This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches. Our literature searches carried out November 1st 2023 identified: four new ongoing studies (ISRCTN82413824, NCT06063421, NCT06077240, NCT06088862); one linked paper by Prell et al (10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071099) and two reports to be classified. For further details see our webpage under 'Monthly search findings': https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/electronic-cigarettes-for-smoking-cessation-cochrane-living-systematic-review-1 For more information on the full Cochrane review updated in November 2022 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub7/full This podcast is supported by Cancer Research UK.

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss cigarette packaging, flavours and brand names with Eve Taylor, King's College London. Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Dr Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Eve Taylor who is working on a PhD in the Nicotine Research Group at King's College London. Eve also works as a research assistant on projects including the International Tobacco Control Project and the Public Health England e-cigarette evidence reviews. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce interviews Eve Taylor at the E-Cigarette Summit, 16th November at the Royal College of Physicians, London. Eve discusses packaging regulations and the role that cigarette packaging and e-cigarette packaging have on the appeal to young people and adults. She draws on findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) survey data. The survey data from ASH shows that young people are less interested in trying e-cigarettes in standardised packaging and colours compared to branded packaging. However, changing the packaging does not affect adults, including adults that use combustible cigarettes. Eve discusses the role of flavour names and brand names. The interview highlights that the consequences of any changes in policy need to be thought through and any changes in regulations need to be clear and easily enforceable. This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches. Our literature searches carried out November 1st 2023 identified: four new ongoing studies (ISRCTN82413824, NCT06063421, NCT06077240, NCT06088862); one linked paper by Prell et al (10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071099) and two reports to be classified. For further details see our webpage under 'Monthly search findings': https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/electronic-cigarettes-for-smoking-cessation-cochrane-living-systematic-review-1 For more information on the full Cochrane review updated in November 2022 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub7/full This podcast is supported by Cancer Research UK.

The Covid-19 inquiry continues with key scientists sharing their insights into the pandemic response. Someone who has already given their testimony is Professor Yvonne Doyle. Professor Doyle was the former Medical Director and Director of Health Protection for the now defunct Public Health England. She speaks to Emma about the role of PHE in the pandemic response, her experience as a senior woman in government at the time and lessons we can learn from the pandemic. Another Body is an award-winning documentary which follows US engineering student, Taylor, in her search for answers and justice after she discovers deepfake pornography of herself circulating online. Ahead of its release in the UK, one of the documentary's directors, Sophie Compton joins Emma to discuss why she decided to make this documentary, what she found and why she used deepfake technology herself to anonymise the identities of their protagonists. The pianist Chloe Flower came to the public's attention after a show-stopping performance with rap queen Cardi B at the 2019 Grammy Awards. She has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music from Celine Dion to American rappers such as: Meek Mill, Lil Baby, 2Chainz and Nas. Recently Chloe received an award from Gloria Steinem at the Asia Society's Last Girl Awards for her efforts in the fight against human trafficking. She joins Emma to talk about her “popsical” musical style, which infuses classical music with contemporary pop, and to perform live from her ‘Chloe Hearts Christmas' album. Presented by Emma Barnett Producer: Louise Corley

Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe is back for a second episode and we chat about the influence of probiotics and antibiotics on the gut microbiome. Could there be missing microbes contributing to food intolerances? And why researching the microbiomes of honey bees is helping our understanding of their survivability and social behaviors.   Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of London, and her PhD in Molecular Microbiology through an industrial partnership with Public Health England. Emma started her faculty career at the University of Calgary in 2005, with a Fellow-to-Faculty transition award through CAG/AstraZeneca and CIHR, to study the normal microbes of the human gut. In particular, she was among the few that focused on trying to culture these ‘unculturable' microbes in order to better understand their biology. To do this, she developed a model gut system - the Robogut - to emulate the conditions of the human gut and allow communities of microbes to grow together, as they do naturally. Emma moved her lab to the University of Guelph in late 2007, and has been a recipient of several Canadian Foundation for Innovation Awards that have allowed her to develop her specialist anaerobic fermentation laboratory further. This has been boosted by the award of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions. Emma's research focuses are very broad, although they are all united under the banner of microbial culture and the microbiome. She has current projects focused on the human gut microbiome, on colorectal cancer, diabetes, xenobiotic metabolism, and 'missing microbes'. More recently Emma has entered the fascinating realm of the insect gut microbiome - specifically the microbes that colonize bees!

This time the tables have turned on regular show host, Stuart King, MD & Head of Distraction at BeeZee Bodies. In this special edition, Stu is interviewed by an esteemed panel including BeeZee Bodies Behavioural Insights Lead, Dr Tiago Moutela, Dr Lou Atkinson, Head of Research at EXI, and Dr Neil Howlett, Senior Research Fellow in Behavioural Science at the University of Hertfordshire. Stu shares his journey; from first creating physical activity interventions funded by Sport England, to his time commissioning in Bedford Borough Council, as a Senior Scientist at Public Health England, and finally stepping into BeeZee Bodies full-time as CEO & Head of Distraction, in 2015. The panel dig into some of his key areas of interest including: 

In this episode, Dr Hannah Rosa is joined by Dr Shan, a GP colleague and father to Oscar, an 8-week-old baby. Together, they go through the 6-week baby check, while discussing the recently updated guidance from Public Health England. They also explore the key role that the examination plays in screening for a variety of physical conditions, which, if picked up early, can make a huge difference to the future health of a child.

Seemingly-reliable sources give you diametrically-opposed views on vaping. Are e-cigarettes “95% less harmful” than cigarettes, or aren't they? Are vapes gateway drugs that lead people to smoke, or are they a great way to give up smoking? Is it both? Neither?In Episode 5 of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart look into the research on the health effects of vaping and try to answer these questions - as well as explaining the origin of the fabled “popcorn lung”.The Studies Show is brought to you by the i, the UK's best daily newspaper. For the next 7 days only, you can take advantage of the i's current deal: 50% off a full digital subscription + the physical weekend paper. Thanks to the i for their support!If you like the sound of The Studies Show, then please consider becoming a subscriber. You can join as a free subscriber and get an email whenever we release an episode. If you join as a paid subscriber, you'll be able to access some features like ask-me-anything chats with Tom and Stuart, and (soon) paid-only episodes. Either way, you can subscribe right here:Show Notes* The WHO praises India for banning vapes* Article on The Conversation arguing the “vaping is 95% less harmful than cigarettes” claim has been debunked* Long UK Government/King's College London report defending the “95% less harmful” claim (2022)* Earlier (2018) Public Health England report with similar conclusions* New Nicotine Alliance (unaffiliated anti-smoking charity) report with useful references on addictiveness, risk, etc.* Popcorn lung: Science-Based Medicine piece illustrated with lungs full of popcorn; Johns Hopkins piece saying popcorn lung is a concern; American Lung Association piece agreeing; Cancer Research UK piece saying no cases ever linked to vaping* Study retracted for erroneously comparing different age groups; study retracted for time-travelling heart-attacks* UK cigarette smoking rate dropping in adults; dropping in children* Tom's article on this from 2017* 2017 study showing vaping and cigarette smoking correlate in teenagers* 2022 Cochrane review on vaping and smoking cessation* Study of vaping in pregnant mice; press release; article in The Sun with scary headline* Study on vaping vs. nicotine patches for smoking cessation in pregnant women* People's beliefs about vaping: increasing belief that it's as dangerous as smoking in adults; in adults again; in childrenCreditsThe Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe

In the second episode of the series Professor Lennox is joined by Professors Marian Knight and Fiona Alderdice to examine how mental illnesses impact women and families in the postnatal period, and the power of speaking out. Professor Marian Knight is the Director of Oxford's National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) and Honorary Consultant in Public Health with Public Health England. Professor Fiona Alderdice is Senior Social Scientist at Oxford's National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) and Honorary Chair in Perinatal Health and Wellbeing at Queen's University Belfast. Here, they explore how shame, guilt and stigma can lead to a deterioration in mental health for women after giving birth, and the need for more resource and research in this area. Content warning: Please be aware that this episode refers to depression, psychosis, PTSD and topics such as maternal suicide.

V tomto podcaste budeme hovoriť o mýtoch, ktoré sa šíria okolo neškodnosti vapovania, aké rôzne druhy planetárnych systémov poznáme a o robotickom kuchárovi. Pseudocast 614 na YouTube Zdroje E-cigarettes: Public Health England's evidence-based confusion E-cigarettes: an evidence update : A report commissioned by Public Health England Electronic cigarettes and health outcomes: umbrella and systematic review of the global evidence We Live in the Rarest Type of Planetary System Recognition of Human Chef's Intentions for Incremental Learning of Cookbook by Robotic Salad Chef Robot ‘chef' learns to recreate recipes from watching food videos Image by Ethan Parsa from Pixabay

This edition of Airing Pain was prompted by the 2022 NICE Guidelines which followed a Public Health England report (2019) looking at medicines associated with dependence and withdrawal. Read transcript This new legislation follows increased concerns in high levels of prescribing. This edition discusses the challenges and opportunities of de-prescribing; and poses a shift in focus towards supported self-management and de-medicalising the management of pain for some patients. By this we mean the exploration of alternative therapies and supported self-care customised to individual needs, which come hand-in-hand with any de-prescribing of medicines. We discuss the incredibly important role of the advanced pharmacist practitioner in adjusting the prescriptions of medicine, and the long-term regular use of pharmacists for these purposes. Contributors: Dr Emma Davies, Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner specialising in Pain Managemen Dr Keith Mitchell, Consultant in Pain Medicine at the Royal Cornwall Hospital Dr Jim Huddy, GP and Clinical Lead for Chronic Pain This edition of Airing Pain was possible thanks to support from the British Pain Society. Time Stamps: 0:49 – Paul introducing the topic NICE Guidelines 2022, following from a Public Health England report 2019 looking at medicines associated with dependence and withdrawal. 1:38 – Introducing Dr Emma Davies; advanced pharmacist practitioner in pain management, Co-Founder to Living Well With Pain, prescribing for chronic pain, and involved in setting NICE guidelines. 6:23 – The problem: knowing the medicines may be harmful but a lack of correct support in place for other ways of living with pain. Reducing this type of medicine must come hand-in-hand with proper support to living well with pain. 7:24 – What does support look like? Alternative therapies and support based on their personalised circumstances. 9:15 – Talk from the Patient Group at the British Pain Society on intersectional problems and barriers to accessing care particularly for socially minoritized individuals and groups. 13:28 – Introducing the educational resources Pain Consultants Dr Keith Mitchell and Dr Jim Huddy, at Royal Cornwall Hospital, have put together for prescribers. 14:12 – Introducing Dr Frances Cole's 10 footstep model to pain management as another possible alternative to prescribing. 16:26 – Social prescribers and upskilling non-clinicians to provide support. 17:27 – Discussion on how to pose non-medical supported self-management to patients, in place of medicalised support.  17:49 – Explaining the Pain Café in Cornwall 20:00 – Invitation to fill in our survey 20:45 – Advanced pharmacist practitioner, Dr Emma Davis, on the diverse and essential roles pharmacists play in pain management. 21:40 – Introducing the ‘medication review'. 28:48 – The ‘healing power of a good book': escapism techniques. More Information: Referenced Edition 123: Dr Jim Huddy Royal Cornwall Hospital, in ‘Opioids and Chronic Pain' The Pain Café in Cornwall Imagine If – Social Prescribing Team NICE Guidelines (2022) ‘Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms' Living Well with Pain – Ten Footsteps Programme

Since it launched in 1985, Microsoft Excel has been a powerhouse in the world of data analysis and business processes across the globe. You would expect the software to be a polished, reliable and foolproof tool, leaving no room for error, however that is not always the case. While it is an effective tool, it brings with it its own set of risks, with some companies having learnt the hard way. Listen to this episode to find out how some of the largest companies in the world including Kodak, Barclays, Public Health England and even MI5 have made simple errors in their spreadsheets that have cost them millions. If you would like to read this instead, just visit our blog here. And don't forget, you can access ebooks, downloads, templates and more on our website.

Whether you live in Eden Prairie or not, there is one thing that you should do after a flood, and that is to clean up your home. The EPA has a list of tips that you can follow to make sure that you are doing the right thing in your flood clean up. This list of tips includes things like how to deal with standing water in your basement, and how to remove wet silt and debris from your home.EPA's Flood-Damaged Homes: Approaches to Effective Decontamination, Cleaning, and DryingEPA's Flood-Damaged Homes: Approaches to Effective Decontamination, Cleaning, and Drying provides a comprehensive guide to cleaning up your home after a flood. The guide contains information on various ways to effectively clean up a flood, including what to do if your home has a mold problem. It also includes how-to videos and infographics.EPA's Flood-Damaged Home: Approaches to Effective Decontamination, Clean and Drying is an excellent reference resource. It contains a lot of information but does not always represent EPA policy. The document does not cover all aspects of flood clean up but includes the basic information you need to know.Avoid getting trapped by rising floodwaterGetting trapped by rising floodwaters is a serious threat to your life. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid getting trapped.First, avoid driving through floodwater. Fast-moving floodwaters can wash away bridges and cars. If you do need to drive, stay in your vehicle. If your car becomes submerged, re-evaluate the situation. Stay calm and wait for the rescue.If you are stranded on a roof or object above floodwater, move to a higher level. You can also call 9-1-1 to get help. If you cannot reach a phone, hold your breath and wait for the rescue.Remove wet silt and debris from your homeGetting rid of wet silt and debris from your home after a flood can be tricky. It's important to follow the right steps to ensure you're not left with mold or mildew problems. Getting rid of the water is also important, as flood water can contain harmful substances.The American Red Cross offers free cleanup services and vouchers for essential furnishings and medications. Public Health England has also provided guidance on how to prepare your home for future flooding. Service Restoration is one of the best flood damage repair in Eden PrairieFlood water can contain viruses and bacteria, as well as chemicals and other toxic substances. Before you start cleaning, make sure you've gathered the right tools. Wear eye protection, non-porous boots, and other protective clothing.Dealing with standing water in a flooded basementManaging a flood in your basement can be stressful, but there are some things you can do to minimize the damage and help your basement look its best again. Below are a few tips and tricks to help you get your basement dry and back in business.The first step to dealing with standing water in your basement is to determine where it is coming from. Floods can be caused by a variety of sources, including a burst pipe or a faulty sump pump. In some cases, you may need to call a plumber for help. You can use Service Restoration to improve your flood damage restoration in Eden PrairieIf you decide to tackle the job yourself, be sure to have the proper equipment on hand. A wet/dry vacuum is one of the best tools to use for removing water from your basement.Precautions following a flood in Eden PrairieTaking precautions following a flood clean up can keep you healthy and protect your property. Flood waters can contain hazardous materials, such as bacteria, viruses, raw sewage, and chemicals. In some cases, they can contaminate drinking water supplies.After a flood, you should not touch any electrical equipment or appliances while wet. You should also turn off utilities before re-entering your home. You should also avoid working in flood-damaged buildings. You should also take your pets to a safe location.You should also wear protective clothing, such as gloves, goggles, and N-95 masks. You should also drink plenty of fluids and avoid strenuous exertion. Service Restoration Inc. is your one-stop flood damage service in Eden Prairie. We are dedicated to providing you with the highest level of service for residential and commercial flooding situations. You can rely on our expert services, affordable prices, and no clean up surprises!Contact us:Service Restoration Eden Prairie18011 Pioneer Trail, Eden Prairie, MN 55347 (952) 522-8100

England's Rugby League Women's team play their next World Cup match against Papua New Guinea tonight. Joining Emma to talk about how to get more women involved in the game are the official Women's Ambassador for the Rugby League World Cup Jodie Cunningham and the Captain Emily Rudge. Jodie is also an Ambassador for the RLWC's Social Impact Programme which champions inclusive volunteering. We hear from volunteer Jenny Robinson, who is a wheelchair user and has learning disabilities, who says it's changed her life. Whether you choose to watch or not, you won't have escaped the news that reality show I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! is back on TV and that Matt Hancock, the former Health Secretary during the pandemic, who had to resign over breaking his own rules when an affair with an aide was exposed by the newspapers - is due to make his first appearance in the jungle camp in Australia tonight. Christine Hamilton, media personality and author, married to former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton - came third in the first series of I'm a Celebrity 20 years ago - back in 2002. She gives her view to Emma, as does Dr Cathy Gardner, who brought a judicial review on the government's discharge policy of hospitals to care homes at the beginning of the pandemic against Matt Hancock, the NHS and Public Health England – and won. Results are being declared in the US midterm elections. The Republicans currently have the most seats in the House of Representatives but it is still unclear which party could gain control of the Senate. Abortion has played a role in these elections, with the first batch of exit polls showing that for 3 in 10 Americans, abortion was the most important issue. The Democrats ran campaigns that focussed on abortion rights and poll as the most trusted party with this issue, but has the importance of abortion rights been overplayed? Emma speaks to Amanda Taub, writer for The New York Times. Over the last few weeks we've been talking about the power and the pain of female friendship. A Woman's Hour Listener we are calling Nina contacted us - she was listening to one of the episodes exploring whether friendships can be repaired - and it really chimed with her. Our reporter Jo Morris met Nina at her home to hear her story.

Baby food pouches are estimated to make up around 25% of the baby food market and in the fast-paced world in which we live it is no surprise they are a popular go to for many parents. The epitome of convenience with no messy prep, washing up or storage. But, how are they actually made and how healthy are they? Catherine Lippe joins me this week, a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr) specialising in paediatric and maternal nutrition. She has over 10 years' experience as a Registered Nutritionist in the field of infant and maternal nutrition and has worked in both the private and public sectors including the NHS and Public Health England. Catherine now works as a consultant paediatric nutritionist offering families, early years settings and the food industry practical, tailored advice on many aspects of child nutrition including; weaning, fussy eating, early years nutrition and nutrition for pregnancy and breastfeeding. To find out more visit her website www.catherinelippenutrition.co.uk or follow her on Instagram: @lippenutrition or Facebook Catherine Lippe Nutrition The Babease veg-led pouches discussed in this episode are linked below: https://www.babease.co/shop?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5ZSWBhCVARIsALERCvy71iYJuKdXHsjy-a1pQv6wtzKvCzh73-zBQAC3B2gLaPAYS8TId7oaAsVvEALw_wcB This episode is sponsored by Aptaclub, bringing you reliable information, tips and checklists about all things pregnancy, birth and baby from Aptaclub experts. Sign up for free at Aptaclub.co.uk. The internet can be a difficult place to navigate for accessible, evidence based information so I am delighted to be able to sign post you to Aptaclub.co.uk knowing you will be in safe hands. Don't forget if you would like the very best support for the entirety of your pregnancy journey, I would love you to be part of my exclusive course ‘Your Pregnancy Journey' as a listener you will have access to a very special offer. https://www.midwifepip.com/your-pregnancy-journey You can also visit www.midwifepip.com and view all the other services I offer For more expert information and for expert guidance and support on your journey... Follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/midwife_pip And. remember to hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss my upcoming episodes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine it's the year 2032. The summer Olympics are just kicking off in Brisbane, the Perseverance rover has arrived back on Earth carrying Martian rocks, we've just finished recording the 2,000th episode of this podcast, and the UK has just become the fattest nation in Europe. OK snap back to the present and there is still something we can do about that last one. A report by the World Health Organization warns that obesity has already reached “epidemic proportions” in Europe, causing 200,000 cancer cases and 1.2 million deaths a year. The UK is currently 4th in its European rankings and in ten years is predicted to top the charts. The question is: How is this possible in a country where the Government has an obesity strategy, and where at least a dozen policies or white papers have been announced on the topic since 1997? In this episode of the Food Matters Live Podcast, we are going to look at the possible solutions and ask what the food industry can do, to help solve the crisis. We will also ask: Given this situation, why has the Government decided to delay the ban on the promotion of foods high in fat salt and sugar (HFSS)? Michele Cecchini, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Michele Cecchini leads work on Public Health at the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.  Michele's research interests include priority setting and programme evaluation of policies influencing population health.  He is the editor and co-author of publications on the economic aspects of public health, including the OECD flagship publication on the heavy burden of obesity.  Michele holds a position of adjunct professor in applied health economics at the School of Public Health of the University of Siena and served as temporary advisor to governments and intergovernmental agencies such as the World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, the European Commission and the World Bank.  Michele is a medical doctor specialized in public health and holds a master's degree from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Imperial College London. Professor Paul Gately, Leeds Beckett University Paul Gately is Director of MoreLife and a Professor of Exercise and Obesity at Leeds Beckett University, he is the Co-Director of the Obesity Institute at Leeds Beckett University.   Paul was the Principle Investigator on Public Health England's Whole Systems Approach to Obesity and he is the Co-director of the Centre for Applied Obesity Research.  His primary research interest is child and adult obesity treatment strategies but also the wider determinants of obesity.   Paul has delivered over 600 presentations and scientific publications, as well as numerous policy documents on obesity treatment, whole systems approaches to obesity and physical activity promotion. 

Paul Gately is Director of MoreLife and a Professor of Exercise and Obesity at Leeds Beckett University, he is the Co-Director of the Obesity Institute at Leeds Beckett University.  Paul was the Principle Investigator on Public Health England's Whole Systems Approach to Obesity and he is the Co-director of the Centre for Applied Obesity Research. His primary research interest is child and adult obesity treatment strategies but also the wider determinants of obesity.  Paul has delivered over 600 presentations and scientific publications, as well as numerous policy documents on obesity treatment, whole systems approaches to obesity and physical activity promotion.    https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/blogs/carnegie-xchange/2022/02/professor-paul-gately-obesity-institute/   https://www.more-life.co.uk/morelifeteam/paul-gately/

Dr. Theresa Lamagni, an epidemiologist at Public Health England, and Sarah Gregory discuss outbreaks of group A Streptococcus associated with home healthcare in England.

The UK Government is planning to introduce a raft of restrictions on the promotion of foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) - but will they actually make any difference? The idea behind the proposals is to improve public health.  But will we actually develop new, healthy shopping habits once the regulations come in? In this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, we look at the evidence to see how shopping and eating habits might change. What does the research show? How will impulse purchasing be affected? In short, what happens when our favourite foods are no longer quite so visible? The Government recently announced that it was delaying some of the restrictions. That has caused lots of controversy and no doubt we will revisit the topic in the weeks ahead. But here's how things stand as of June 2022: A ban on buy-one-get-one free deals on food and drink that is high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as free refills for soft drinks, has been postponed by 12 months and won't be introduced before October 2023. Plans to restrict TV advertising of HFSS products before the nine o'clock watershed have also been delayed by a year, until January 2024. But restrictions on where HFSS products can be placed in shops will still go ahead in October 2022. Malcolm Clark, Senior Prevent Policy Manager, Cancer Research UK Malcolm oversees Cancer Research UK's policy work on tobacco, obesity and other cancer prevention risk factors.  He has been at the forefront of obesity policy and advocacy for the past decade – first with Children's Food Campaign (part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming) and since 2018 at Cancer Research UK.   He sat on Public Health England's review of the Nutrient Profile Model, and was part of the team which implemented the HFSS ad ban across Transport for London sites.   Malcolm sits on the steering groups of the Obesity Health Alliance and the Alcohol Health Alliance.   Hannah Skeggs, Health and Sustainable Diets Manager, IGD Hannah is a nutritionist (ANutr), passionate about aligning commercial interest with health and sustainability.  Working in industry for Danone and Unilever, she successfully led reformulation projects to reduce sugar, fat, energy and salt whilst maintaining taste and ensuring product growth.  Now as Health and Sustainable Diets Manager at IGD, she works collaboratively with industry to understand how store environments and product formulation can help consumers to eat healthier and more sustainably in the future.

Welcome to the Psychedelic Conversations Podcast! Episode 44: In this episode, we sit down with Tara Austin to hear about her background story and what led her to specialise in the field of applied behavioural science. She also shares insights about her passion for bringing awareness to psychedelics for mental health. 00:00 - Fire Moment 01:15 - Introduction 01:43 - Tara's Background 06:39 - The UK Psychedelic Movement 19:30 - Psilocybin Access Rights (PAR) 24:44 - Establishing Laws For Psychedelic Therapy 28:43 - The New Frontier 35:29 - Utilizing Psychedelics Effectively 42:43 - A New Generation Of Therapists 48:07 - Advice For The Future Of Psychedelics 50:57 - Tara's Last Words Of Wisdom 54:05 - Outro About Tara: Tara began her career as a strategist in advertising agencies and has worked with many of the world's biggest brands from Unilever and Coca-Cola to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Then, ten years ago, she began to specialise in the new field of applied behavioural science and led Ogilvy Behavioural Science Practice's inaugural experiment. Today she creates integrated behaviour change campaigns for clients such as HM Government, Recycle for London and Public Health England. Tara is the host of Nudgestock, the world's biggest festival of behavioural science and creativity. Connect with Tara: Website: http://www.par.global/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-austin-78b2a780 Thank you so much for joining us! Psychedelic Conversations Podcast is designed to educate, inform, and expand awareness. For more information, please head over to https://www.psychedelicconversations.com Please share with your friends or leave a review so that we can reach more people and feel free to join us in our private Facebook group to keep the conversation going. https://www.facebook.com/groups/psychedelicconversations This show is for information purposes only and is not intended to provide mental health or medical advice. About Susan Guner: Susan is a trained somatic, trauma-informed holistic psychotherapist with a mindfulness-based approach grounded in Transpersonal Psychology that focuses on holistic perspective through introspection, insight, and empathetic self-exploration to increase self-awareness, allowing the integration of the mind, body and spirit aspects of human experience in personal growth and development. Connect with Susan: Website: https://www.psychedelicconversations.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/susan.guner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-guner/ Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/susanguner Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/susanguner Blog: https://susanguner.medium.com/ Podcast: https://anchor.fm/susan-guner #PsychedelicConversations #SusanGuner #TaraAustin #PsychedelicPodcast #Microdosing #PsychedelicScience #PlantMedicines #PsychedelicResearch #Entheogens

Dan leads the behavioural science practice within Ogilvy Consulting London looking after clients from the public and private sectors. He is a Practitioner, Speaker and Writer on the creative application of behavioural science to the world's stickiest challenges. Joining the practice at its commencement in 2012, he has worked on over 80 of the world's major brands & organisations.  He has a diverse experience working across the design of products and services, consulting for organisational change and communications across all channels, across many markets. Whether that's designing first generation tech in Silicon Valley, reducing obesity in Mexico, changing cleaning habits in Beijing, call centres in India or shaping the retail environment in South Africa.  Dan co-leads the global hub in London and helped to roll out the practice across the Ogilvy network.  He has led pioneering projects with Spotify, Facebook, Unilever, Nestle, Public Health England, Gatwick Airport, ITV, the Times, British Airways, Mr Muscle, Diageo, Adobe, the EU Parliament, Comic Relief and many more. And won a range of awards from the Creative Circle, Cannes Lion to the Nudge awards.  He's been lucky enough to be invited to speak to audiences in over 15 countries about the unseen opportunities behavioural science brings. Some highlights have been Harvard University, National Security summits, Marketing and Social Media conferences, Super Yacht congresses, financial conferences. He has also helped curate the world's largest festival of Behavioural Science, Nudgestock, since it began seven years ago.  Before Ogilvy, Dan was part of a research group at the University of York Psychology department looking at the real-world impacts of our mobile phone usage. 

Ifirst encountered Beth Britton in 2013 at the Independent Age Awards, where she was named Best Independent Voice on older people's issues. I was one of those shortlisted alongside her and it was at the ceremony in central London that I first heard this young woman's incredible story, of how her dairy farmer father had developed vascular dementia when she was 12 and how his condition, with which he lived for a further 19 years, came to dominate her teens and twenties as she willingly sacrificed her chance of further education and a full-time career to focus on supporting him.During those almost two decades her father experienced what she describes as a myriad of health and social care services that varied from excellent to exceptionally poor. “What all the experiences had in common,” she says, “was what could be learnt from them to improve knowledge, awareness and care for all”.And to this end, after her father died in 2012 she set up her blog, D4Dementia, to provide support for people facing the many and complex social and health care challenges that she and her family had lived through. She sought to promote debate, improve dementia care and educate both care professionals and the wider population. By 2013, when I met her, she already had a sizeable and rapidly growing social media presence, and was a serious dementia campaigner. Alongside Beth's successful ten-year-old blog, sit a raft of other accomplishments. She helped plan and deliver the UK Government's first G8 Dementia Summit in 2013; she's a consultant, trainer and mentor whose had roles with care homes and charities, Government departments and national bodies such as Public Health England and the Care Quality Commission. Her list of public appearances and speeches is very, very long; and she often pops up on radio and television, where she's never less than polished, fluent and knowledgeable.She brings her professionalism, empathy and experience to bear on topics as profound as end of life care and as seemingly mundane but hugely important and detailed as skin integrity and swallowing issues. Running through all her work, as through mine, is her passion to ensure that the traumas and difficulties that she and her family experienced are turned into something positive. And in this, I think it's fair to say, she's succeeded. Useful organisations & websites:Beth Britton's own website https://bethbritton.com/TIDE, or Together In Dementia Everyday, a UK-wide network connecting carers and former carerswww.tide.uk.netDementia Carers Count, a charity who support families and friends caring for someone with dementia, dementiacarers.org.ukDementia UK (with which Young Dementia UK has now merged) is a charity that supports and trains Admiral Nurses, specialist dementia nurses who provide invaluable support to those with dementia and their families www.dementiauk.orgThe Alzheimer's Society, www.alzheimers.org.uk See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

小額贊助支持本節目： https://pay.firstory.me/user/linshibi 這集是在12月17日專訪葉醫師之前因為我還沒回到家，葉醫師先自己解說了一下英國公共衛生署（Public Health England, 簡稱PHE）的新冠監測資料。給大家參考！ Omicron變種病毒懶人包 傳染力 重症 疫苗有效性 要打加強針嗎？ https://linshibi.com/?p=39815 歡迎追蹤前台大感染科醫師。04b的發聲管道！ 我的電子名片 https://lit.link/linshibi 希望大家當我的種子教師，推廣正確的新冠衛教。科學防疫，不要只以恐懼防疫！ 歡迎贊助林氏璧孔醫師喝咖啡，讓我可以在這個紛亂的時代，繼續分享知識努力做正確新冠相關衛教。 https://pay.firstory.me/user/linshibi Powered by Firstory Hosting

Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe, a foremost researcher on the human microbiome joins the Two Nobodys for a fascinating conversation. Emma shares what we do and do not know about the microbiome, some of the characteristics of a healthy microbiome, how it may have changed over history, the effects of COVID, and what foods may be beneficial. Dr. Emma Allen Vercoe's research page: https://www.uoguelph.ca/mcb/people/dr-emma-allen-vercoe Twitter: @EmmaAllenVercoe -- Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of London, and her PhD in Molecular Microbiology through an industrial partnership with Public Health England. Dr. Allen-Vercoe started her faculty career at the University of Calgary in 2005, with a Fellow-to-Faculty transition award through CAG/AstraZeneca and CIHR, to study the normal microbes of the human gut.  In particular, she was among the few that focused on trying to culture these ‘unculturable' microbes in order to better understand their biology.  To do this, she developed a model gut system to emulate the conditions of the human gut and allow communities of microbes to grow together, as they do naturally.   Dr. Allen-Vercoe moved her lab to the University of Guelph in late 2007, and has been a recipient of several Canadian Foundation for Innovation Awards that has allowed her to develop her specialist anaerobic fermentation laboratory further. This has been recently boosted by the award of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions .  In 2013, Dr. Allen-Vercoe co-founded NuBiyota, a research spin-off company that aims to create therapeutic ecosystems as biologic drugs, on a commercial scale.  The research enterprise for this company is also based in Guelph. 

Together, we talk about our mental health. Welcome to A Mental Health Break. This is the show where mental health advocates and professionals share their "WHY" relating to mental health and stream from around the world to help you on your journey.For the Season 7, Episode 2, the show will take a deep look into the mental health of Dads everywhere.  John Stacey joins the show from the United Kingdom to talk about all of the work he has done to provide mental health education to adult males and break the stigma of men with mental health. https://www.vincentalanci.comMeet  Stacey: The Mental Health discussion for men has been quiet for way too long. John Stacey highlights support and resources or Dads who many need support for their mental health.John is a dad, husband, marketer, counsellor, mental health first aider, peer group facilitator, charity trustee, and local governing officer for mental health provision. He also has a podcast and is a regular guest on podcasts talking all things mental health, masculinity, and fatherhood. Stacey wants to share his experiences, testimony and knowledge to help equalize mental health support for all (man, woman, child) and has delivered keynotes to the NHS and Public Health England on fathers mental health.To Join His Mental Health Community: https://www.instagram.com/johnmhs4dads/Email: hello@mentalklincs.uk'Mental Health Week' Book: https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Health-Week-Vincent-Lanci/dp/0578676168/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=mental+health+week'Mr. Lanci Talks Mental Health' Book: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Lanci-Talks-Mental-Health/dp/0578784661/ref=sr_1_2?crid=58KRJ9LE9C47&dchild=1&keywords=mr+lanci+talks+mental+healthAll episodes: amentalhealthbreak.buzzsprout.comInstagram: instagram.com/amentalhealthbreakFacebook: facebook.com/amentalhealthbreakTwitter: twitter.com/PodcastsByLanciLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/amentalhealthbreakThis episode is brought to you by Tampa Counseling and Wellness!Dedicated to helping individuals looking to positively transform their lives through compassionate counseling and wellness coaching. If you struggle with depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues, call today for a free consultation. Tampa Counseling and Wellness; therapy that inspires change.Website: www.tampacounselingandwellness.comPhone: 813 520 2807Host Name: Vincent A. LanciDigital Editing: PodcastsByLanci@Gmail.comHappy | https://soundcloud.com/morning-kulishow/happy-backgSpotlight Story Source: EdgeFoundation.Org

Meaghan Kall is an epidemiologist at what used to be known as Public Health England but is now the UK Health Security Agency. She and her colleagues have been working flat out for two years producing some of the world's best COVID data. We speak about annoying and funny COVID myths. She gives her view on COVID vaccine waning, Long COVID and risk in children; and how we are going to come to terms with COVID as an endemic disease (think about managing flu, although with different outcomes). We dive into what it means to be an epidemiologist and think about the social determinants of health. With the lens of looking at HIV epidemiology, we discuss how certain populations are more adversely impacted. We discuss what caring for disabled children as meant for us and how that insight is another facet of what it means to be human. We think about what “expected value” means and how science can not answer matters of policy which have to be decided also by thinking of our values and other trade-offs. Meaghan gives the advice she is currently giving family and friends and ends with some thinking on life career advice. Transcript and video available here. Ben's Twitter @benyeohben and Meaghan's Twitter @kallmemeg

The Covid-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the public health system and the people who work in it like never before. Helen McKenna sits down with Matthew Ashton, Director of Public Health in Liverpool and Tracy Daszkiewicz, Deputy Director of Population Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England, to explore what they've learnt from their experiences during the pandemic and, at a time of reform for public health and the wider health and care system, what the future holds for public health. Related resources Directors of public health and the Covid-19 pandemic: ‘A year like no other' The public health workforce: overdue for attention Our work on the legislative agenda for health and care reform

In today's episode, we chat with the #NHSCommunicate winners.Edna Boampong, is representing the team from Cheshire & Merseyside Health & Care Partnership Trust whose behaviour change programme increasing vaccine uptake in ethnic and minorities made a significant increase of 5711%. Edna is now Director of Communications & Engagement, Shropshire, Telford, Wrekin ICS formerly Director of Communications & Engagement, Cheshire & Merseyside Health & Care Partnership Trust. Insights from this episodeUnderstand your audience. Edna developed a proposal and brought partners and their budget on board to be able to commission this work out. NHSEI team, Directors of Public Health and Public Health England. Stage 1: Census data was out of date. A refreshed view was needed. Commissioned a data mining company to get a better, deep understanding of who the audiences are; down to street level. Stage 2: Quantitative survey in the areas identified. Reached over 632 people in the target audience! Success down to using the new data tool and targeted ads. Data arrived just as the vaccine arrived. Ahead of the curve as aware of which communities were more likely to take the vaccine. BAME audiences are not a homogenous group. Able to drill down to 8 groups that were most hesitant and focus efforts. Insights included: The older you were the more likely you were to take the vaccine. Worry about catching covid at the vaccine centre itself. No trust in the Government.Stage 3: The quantitative data tells you the what. The qualitative tells you the why. Ran focus groups and conversations with leaders. Then able to segment further based on attitude and likelihood to take the vaccine. key insight: trust in message and channel is key. First, think about the messaging. Second, think about the channels to target the audience with the message. Microtargeting can mean you duck under the very busy crowded airwaves to cut through the noise. Created Place Plans to equip the Local Authorities so they can then also amplify the messaging. Top tip for winter: Follow the data.Top don't bother: Don't assume. Book recommendation: Then She Was Gone, Lisa Jewell

Hello ladies, Thank you for tuning in, I'm truly loving talking to you and introducing you to inspirational woman. I just love how the conversations always go off on a tangent and today's is no different, sex was the tangent today lol.Today I am joined by Dr Michelle Griffin, who has worked in the NHS for over a decade. Michelle is a gynaecologist, and has held senior roles at Public Health England and the Department of Health. Michelle is also the Chief Medical Officer at Vira Health and is leading the clinical development of Stella – a new app that helps women manage symptoms of menopause.Stella App will help you through the menopause, we are talking today about the wonderful support it offers you. I never thought an App could help you through menopause until I found Stella!You can find out more: Website www.onstella.com App store - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stella-menopause-relief/id1577904186 Links in our bio on IG - @thedrcalled and @rely­_on_stellaSo ladies you know what to do…Grab your cuppa, relax and enjoy…Most of all be kind and loving to yourself ladies.Please do follow, subscribe and share my podcast with all of your girlfriends. I really want to make a difference.You can also message me on Instagram with feedback or maybe you'd like to share your;‘I don't know how it happened,…but' moments or menopause experience and stories.https://www.instagram.com/letlifebeyoga/www.letlifebeyoga.comWe are all in this together.Annie xx

In this episode, we talk about the communication gaps we see around the current supply shortages. We have seen retailers and restaurant and fast food chains run out of essential stock, forcing them to shut. We explore why it is important to get the internal and external communications right. We are joined by the Founder and Creative Director of the Bank of Creativity and  One Minute Briefs. Nick talks about how ideas come to him, building a community rooted in creativity and how he grew One Minute Briefs into what it is today.    McDonald's runs out of milkshakes in all UK restaurants https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/mcdonalds-milkshakes-uk-lorry-driver-shortage-brexit-b951974.html  WHAT THE CLUCK Nando's forced to shut 50 branches after running out of CHICKEN https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/15895993/nandos-shuts-restaurants-running-out-chicken/    UK supermarkets urge shoppers not to panic over lockdown fears  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/23/uk-supermarkets-urge-shoppers-not-to-panic-buy-over-lockdown-fears  Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on grocery shopping behaviours - Public Health England https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/932350/Grocery_Purchasing_Report.pdf  Blood test crisis as GPs run out of vials https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1483908/blood-test-crisis-gp-run-out-vials-shortage-nhs  Truck driver visa options under discussion https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57782920  One Minute Briefs @OneMinuteBriefs https://twitter.com/OneMinuteBriefs  Oneminutebriefs https://www.instagram.com/oneminutebriefs/  Bank of Creativity https://www.bankofcreativity.co.uk/  Bank of Creativity @BOC_ATM https://twitter.com/BOC_ATM Agency Quotes @AgencyQuotes https://twitter.com/AgencyQuotes  #LyttleFight - Using the C-word to help Isabella https://www.bankofcreativity.co.uk/work/2019/1/30/lyttlefight  WWF teams up with global brands to show the emptiness of a #WorldWithoutNature: To highlight the catastrophic decline of nature, WWF is removing the iconic panda from its logo on World Wildlife Day for the first time in its 60-year history https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/wwf-teams-up-with-global-brands-to-show-the-emptiness-of-a-worldwithoutnature  One Minute Briefs are back for Blue Monday https://bit.ly/3h1EbP8  Nick Entwistle https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickentwistle/?originalSubdomain=uk   Season 2 of Have You Got 5 Minutes? Is hosted by Harriet Small and Rebecca Roberts, produced by Dave Musson, Mustard Yellow Media, and brought to in partnership with Nextdoor. Nextdoor is the neighbourhood app used by 1 in 7 households in the UK. For more information  Twitter: @Nextdoor_UK Website:  https://nextdoor.co.uk/    Follow us on Instagram @HYG5MPod    Find Rebecca:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/rebecca7roberts https://twitter.com/threadandfable   Linkedin: Rebecca Roberts  Website: https://threadandfable.com/  Podcast: The Hear It podcast    Find Harriet: Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarrietSmallies   Linkedin: Harriet Small Website: https://www.commsoveracoffee.com/   

The 174-year-old tobacco company spent much of its life blowing a cloud of deceit around the deadly effects of its signature product. Now eager for a do-over, PMI's highly advertised “Unsmoke the World” initiative seems strangely noble, until you start asking questions.* FULL TRANSCRIPT *TEDDY ROOSEVELT: Surely there never was a fight better worth making than the one which we are in.BOB GARFIELD: Welcome to Bully Pulpit. That was Teddy Roosevelt, I'm Bob Garfield. This is episode five: Where There's No Smoke, There's Fire.It's been a hot and violent and infectious and altogether unsettling summer, in the midst of which — in the New York Times and all over the internet — emerged this: Philip-Morris International CEO Yatzick Olczak in an ad campaign speaking about the dangers of cigarettes.OLCZAK: The science exists today and there is no time to spare to solve the problem of smoking.The problem of smoking? From the maker of Marlboro's? There's an attention getter. A bona fide Merchant of Death vowing to phase out cigarettes in favor of so-called smoke-free products, like his company's non-combustible IQOS.TUTORIAL: Say hello to new IQOS heat control technology. Using it couldn't be easier. Remove the IQOS holder from the pocket charger, insert the tobacco stick tobacco side down in the holder and up to the silver line. Turn on, and when the LED turns solid green you can start to experience the true taste of real tobacco by heating, not burning it.The goal, Philip Morris says, is for smoke-free products to represent half of the company's revenue within four years. “Unsmoke the world,” is the slogan.OLCZAK: The prime cause of harm generated by the smoking is an outcome of the combustion. Okay? When you burn the cigarette, when you burn the tobacco you release the thousands of the chemicals. Many of those chemicals, they are very bad for the human body.Olczak says this as if it's a fresh revelation, but it's still jarring to hear Phillip Morris, of all institutions, speak of smoking as a scourge. And to bet the corporate future on a gizmo that aims to obsolete its core product. Listen to the man's frustration that there are skeptics who are not immediately accepting IQOS as a triumph of science and technology.OLCZAK: I do recognize that there is still a group of people who don't believe us. That's fine. So, it's perfectly okay to disagree with us, but it is not perfectly okay to deprive yourself from the ability to have a dialogue with us, to listen, to have a conversation, to read our science. We know that our vision is right, because of the impact PMI has on the society to solve the problem of smoking and the faster we recognize this whole thing and start working on a strategy, the better we all together will be.Oh, OK, now he's playing more to type — informing us that it is unacceptable to ignore Big Tobacco on the question of reducing tobacco's harm. Oh, is it now? Those of us of a certain age can vaguely remember — whaddayacallit? —  the 20th century, during the entirety of which Big Tobacco denied, for example, any link to cancer.REP. WAXMAN: In a deposition last year, you were asked whether cigarette smoking causes cancer. Your answer was, quote, “I don't believe so.” Do you stand by that answer today?TISCH: I do, sir.REP. WAXMAN: Do you understand how isolated you are in that belief from the entire scientific community?TISCH: I do, sir.That was from a 1994 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, in which Congressman Henry Waxman famously confronted Lorillard CEO Andrew Tisch and six other tobacco bosses. But “isolated” wasn't the half of it. For decades, the industry denied links to heart and lung disease, denied the addictiveness of nicotine, denied chemically augmenting nicotine's effects, denied marketing to children — all the while actively undercutting scientific findings, actively producing junk science, falsely claiming filtered and so-called “light” cigarettes were safer and propping up a variety of sciency-sounding front groups — such as the Council for Tobacco Research — that seemed all distinguished and s**t but existed only to obscure the deadly truth about smoking. Which is why, by the way, when Philip Morris noisily pledged $80 million to help underwrite The Foundation for a Smoke Free World, both the World Health Organization and the UN General Assembly cited conflict of interest in telling Big Tobacco to butt out.Nonetheless, the promise of getting the deadly smoke out of smoking has captured many an imagination, including Wall Street's, which has rewarded Phillip Morris and other tobacco makers with bigger share prices and rosy outlooks from stock pickers. Because, the thinking goes, while it's counterintuitive to steer into a skid, that's the way to regain traction.PUNDIT: This is all kind of part of Philip Morris's general rebranding away from smoking products and cigarettes. And they're really seeing the writing on the wall here as cigarette sales in higher income countries continue to dwindle and they're coming under increasing pressure from many governments to curtail their cigarette sales. It's really become in their best interest to kind of make this general shift away from cigarettes and nicotine.That's from Britain's I24 business news. Lo and behold, analysts from Chase, Stiffel Nicklaus, UBS, JP Morgan, Morningstar Research and stock-predictor engine Trefis, have rated Philip Morris International a buy. At about 100 bucks a share, it's price has grown more than 40% in the past 10 months.Of course, while stock prices are historically a highly reliable measure of public sentiment, one thing the free market is notoriously free of is conscience. As a universe, investors are concerned with ongoing earnings growth and nothing else, which is why, as the planet burns to a cinder, Exxon Mobil's share price has doubled in the past year. What's surprising about the smoke-free strategy is that it also has been embraced by a significant cohort of the public health community. This is an excerpt of a video from Public Health England, in which doctors Lion Shahab and Rosemary Leonard show a dramatic experiment comparing the output of burning tobacco versus the nearly pristine vapor from smokeless cigarettes.SHAHAB: My research shows that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than cigarettes. A big reason why is the tar, which you can see here, which is not produced by e-cigarettes but produced by cigarettes. The impact of using e-cigarettes in the long-term is very similar to using licensed nicotine products such as nicotine patches or nicotine gum, as you can see here when you compare the control jar with the vapor jar.LEONARD: So, this experiment shows that every cigarette you smoke causes tar to enter your body and it's the tar that contains the poisonous chemicals that spread through the bloodstream.SHAHAB: Which are linked to diseases such as heart disease, stroke and cancer.That's one view. There is also an opposite one, as voiced by Dr. Vinayak Prasad, head of the World Health Organization's tobacco control division.PRASAD: Switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes is not quitting, number one. Number two, we don't see the smokers switch to e-cigarettes 100 percent. The dual use is again very harmful. What we are also seeing is that more and more younger people are taking to e-cigarettes and then later progressing to tobacco.As for Philip Morris, he told the UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism, quote:If they really want to be a part of the solution, they should go tobacco-free, not smoke-free. If they are genuine about a tobacco-free society, they will readily embrace anything to reduce the demand for all forms of tobacco products.Anything else, he says, is a “criminal act and a human rights violation.”In other words, within the tobacco-control universe, a schism — a polarizing debate hinging on the lesser of two evils. Ruth E. Malone is a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and editor of the journal Tobacco Control.MALONE: We are adding all these new additional products and we are still sorting out what the overall public health impact of that is going to be. So is the impact going to be that, as some people say, it definitely is helpful for them in getting off cigarettes, but others revert back to smoking cigarettes and you just have a larger market of people using tobacco and nicotine products rather than actually reducing the damage from those products.The Public Health England tar experiment would seem to be a vivid and maybe even mic-drop argument for society gratefully accepting smoke-free technology. But to Malone, the whole schism-framing may itself be problematic. She worries that viewing the debate on stark, binary terms obscures a less obvious and highly dangerous element of Big Tobacco's strategy — namely, as Philip Morris's Olzcak insisted — claiming that its expertise has earned the industry a role in governmental decisions about tobacco regulations, treaties and laws. She posed a rhetorical question if ever there was one.MALONE: Should an industry that produces the single most deadly consumer product in history be involved in regulatory decisions about what to do about it and other products that are potentially supplanting or replacing or adding on to the damages caused by cigarettes?So, never mind “lesser of two evils.” How about “the fox guarding the henhouse.”MALONE: Part of the problem now is that, as they do periodically with some frequency, some tobacco companies are engaged in a big makeover, a part of which is aimed at undermining the tobacco control movement on a global level. We have to think not just about the United States, but also what's happening globally, where countries are trying to implement the world's first public health treaty, which is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the WHO  treaty. And one of the provisions of that treaty is Article 5.3, and this is getting a little into the weeds, but basically it says don't let the tobacco companies interfere with your public health policies. They should not have a seat at the table because they have a conflict of interest. That seems pretty fundamental. And that is a real motivation right now for the tobacco companies, is to get back to the table where they can influence policies and prevent policies that might hurt their bottom line.Clearly, til now, the industry has engineered near impunity throughout the developing world. In 2020, the aforementioned Bureau of Investigative Journalism published an expose titled The ‘Unsmoke' screen: the truth behind PMI's cigarette-free future, a piece that looked beyond Phililp Morris's do-gooder narrative for evidence of the same old same old. For example, quote:Since it announced its aim to stop selling cigarettes, it has acquired a new cigarette company, launched a new brand, and added enticing new flavours such as Splash Mega Purple and Fusion Summer. It has also launched legal action against anti-smoking policies in countries like the Philippines, and has carried on advertising cigarettes in countries that permit it.COMMERCIAL: Wanna stand tall? Be true, be bold, be strong, be brave, be daring, be free, be heard, be inspired? You can say yes, or say no. Just never say maybe. Never say maybe. Be Marlboro.That's a Marlboro commercial aired in Indonesia, a country of 271 million people.  Furthermore, according to the BIJ story, quote: “Some pupils in Indonesia can see PMI's cigarette advertising mere steps from their schools' gates. Young people attending festivals in Buenos Aires are offered PMI cigarettes in promotions with beer. Children visiting corner shops in Mexico can see Marlboro's ‘fusion' cigarettes next to sweets.”BRANDT: We need to be very skeptical of these companies that claim that they've crossed over to legitimate health oriented products because they've made these claims, you know, since the 1950s.Allan M. Brandt is a professor of the history of science at Harvard and author of The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America. In 2012, for the American Journal of Public Health, he wrote Inventing Conflicts of Interest: A History of Tobacco Industry Tactics.BRANDT: They told Americans, you know, if you're worried about smoking, smoke filter cigarettes and that was the beginning of Marlboro. You know, you had a cowboy smoking a safe cigarette, which turned out not to be the case. So I'm very skeptical and worried about the current situation with vaping, e-cigarettes, other nicotine related products, and the idea that we're just a responsible company trying to mitigate the harms that our principal product has produced for over a century.And as you probably know, just in the last month, it was reported that the American Journal of Health and Behavior published a entire issue on harm reduction and Juul vaping. And it turns out we're not quite as naive as we used to be. It became clear and it was widely reported in the press that the issue of this journal was completely paid for by Juul and the work was done in Juul labs. They return to this strategy of: we can produce the science. And it has muddied the waters and diluted the authority that science really needs to have positive public health impacts. And we really need science. And science has to speak with expertise and authority and validity and clear and aggressive peer review. And we need to know the difference between something that is a fact and something that obscures facts.GILCHRIST: There's no doubt that misinformation and conflicting information is confusing adults who smoke.That was Moira Gilchrist, who holds a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, back in June. She was not speaking of Big Tobacco's century of disinformation and its toll. In a video about Philip Morris's smoke-free initiative, she was addressing current conflict about smoke-free.GILCHRIST: One day they hear good things about smoke-free alternatives and the next they hear scare stories, and as a scientist I find that really, really upsetting. Because the science is very clear.It's a corporate video. Gilchrist is PMI's Vice President for Strategic & Scientific Communications, whom I spoke to this week. I asked her if she was struck at all by the irony of her complaint, what with Philip Morris's own sorry history of obfuscation and all.GILCHRIST: Well, look, I think I'm not going to speak to, you know, the past history of any company or an industry. What I'm focused on is today and what we know today, and we've made a real deliberate effort to make all of the science publicly available so that people don't have to trust us. They don't have to take our word for it. They can look at what the data says. And we've gone really, really strongly to ensure that we're using open science principles, sharing not just our own conclusions, but also the source data on which we've based those conclusions, so people can feel cynical and feel skeptical. That's fine, but they cannot ignore the data. And that's all I ask, is that independent scientists look at what we've done and look at it with an open mind in order that we can get the facts straight and make sure that adult smokers have the right information to make the right decisions.GARFIELD: We've heard from scientists who do embrace the benefits of a smoke free world, and we have heard a great deal of skepticism about Philip Morris's motives. We've heard both those things. One accusation, though, is that you are creating, excuse the expression, a smokescreen for influencing governmental tobacco control authorities around the world. Indeed, Olczak said that very thing, that authorities cannot not listen to your science.GILCHRIST: So that, again, we've made the science openly available. We've submitted it to regulatory authorities like the US FDA, who spent three and a half years poring through more than a million pages of evidence in order to make a decision to authorize our product. And so this is what we're asking governments to do, because governments can play a really important role in ensuring that adults who smoke have the right information, ensuring that they have access to these products that are a better choice than continuing to smoke. So I think that's what we're asking governments to do. And many of them are doing so. And I think that's really encouraging for the more than a billion smokers all around the world.GARFIELD: I just want to make sure that we agree on some basic facts. Philip Morris does now buy by legal agreement and in its public statements acknowledge that, that smoking burning tobacco does cause cancer, does cause heart disease, does cause emphysema and and so on.GILCHRIST: We have been clear about that for many, many years, and in fact, before I joined the company. We've been very clear that cigarette smoking is extremely unwise because of the diseases that it causes and premature death that it causes. And that's why we set on this path of creating alternatives so that people who don't quit can have another choice that they can go to. The best thing they can do is to quit because these products are not risk free. But if they're not going to quit, they should really consider switching to a smoke-free alternative.GARFIELD: So I believe the follow up question, and this is not a question you've not heard before, is why the f**k is Philip Morris still selling combustible cigarettes anywhere? Something like 800 billion coffin nails a year are being sold and consumed worldwide. Why not just shut that part of the business down today?GILCHRIST: So Bob the key word is transformation. This cannot happen overnight. By 2025, we want to be a majority smoke-free company. So I think we're making tremendous progress. We still have a long way to go. And that's why we're calling on governments to help, because regulation can really help to encourage adults who don't quit to switch to better alternatives.GARFIELD: Who says that the solution is transformation and not cessation? Along this path that you've described, there are, according to the World Health Organization, eight million people a year around the world who will die of smoking related illnesses. Why transform instead of just stop?GILCHRIST: So here's the thing. If we, Philip Morris International, chose to stop selling cigarettes altogether, that would not solve the problem of smoking because most adult smokers would simply switch to our competitors' product and there would be absolutely no impact on public health. So the approach that we've taken is to encourage those people who don't quit to instead switch. And in this way, we can reduce the number of people who are smoking combustible cigarettes and at the same time still make a profit for us as a business. So I think transformation is the way that we can have not just a long term future for the company, but also make a positive impact on public health.GARFIELD: Til now, we've been speaking of science and technology and business. I want to ask you about just fundamental morality. If I, for example, choose not to go into a Walmart with an AR-15 and shoot up the place, gun violence in America will not disappear. But I myself won't be a murderer. I will have not contributed to gun deaths. Isn't that reason enough for me to stand down?GILCHRIST: Look, again, we made a very deliberate decision that the best and quickest way we can get to a smoke free future is by developing, scientifically assessing and commercializing products that are a better choice than continuing to smoke. And if we were to stop selling cigarettes tomorrow, unilaterally, it would not have an impact on public health.GARFIELD: Perhaps I'm naive, but what I'm actually asking about now is a better outcome for the corporate conscience. Is it not better if you are not participating in what has been called the Golden Holocaust?GILCHRIST: So, look, I joined the company to do exactly what we're doing, and that's to provide better outcomes for each individual adult smoker and also better outcomes for our company as well. And I think that's what we're doing.Gilchrist chose not to address the question of conscience further, but rather just reiterated the smoke-free strategy. So I asked Tobacco Control's Ruth Malone approximately the same question.MALONE: I'm old enough to remember one time when a juice company had some salmonella — some contamination of their products — they pulled all their products off the market until they could be, in fact, made safe and they instituted new procedures to make them that way. The tobacco companies have repeatedly said they would do that if it was ever found that their products were unsafe. But in fact, they have never done that. I just think it's time to call their bluff on all this and say, you know, don't just talk about this. If you're really serious about this, then change the nature of your corporation. Become a B corporation. Be working on behalf of the public good. Get rid of the combustibles altogether. Quit selling them.GARFIELD: Yeah, yeah, when pigs fly.MALONE: Yeah, I'm afraid so.GARFIELD: I just wonder if you were in a lake and you were drowning, and the chairman of Philip Morris came running to you and threw you a rope. What would you do?MALONE: I don't know if there's anything at the other end of that rope, so I'd look and see if anybody else had a life preserver. And I'd probably swim. I'd try to swim.All right, we're done here. Next week, Part 2: Crime Against Humanity.Before I sign off though, let me repeat what I said a week ago. If you enjoy a Booksmart Studios show, please please please share it with your world. That's what those little buttons are for, and we depend on our listeners to get the word out. Also, if you become a paying subscriber to Booksmart Studios you'll get extended interviews, additional content, access to the hosts and — in my case — continued access to my weekly column, which is for the moment free to sample. At last count, there were 94 fucktillion podcasts out there, but nothing quite like what Booksmart is up to. Please help us make an impact.Now then, Bully Pulpit is produced by Mike Vuolo and Matthew Schwartz. Our theme was composed by Julie Miller and the team at Harvest Creative Services in Lansing, Michigan. Bully Pulpit is a production of Booksmart Studios. I'm Bob Garfield. Get full access to Bully Pulpit at bullypulpit.substack.com/subscribe

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. In this edition:Public Health England releases a report that shows the shocking death statistics from alcohol in 2020, particularly due to alcoholic liver diseaseA Lancet study shows the huge number of cancer cases caused by alcohol across the world 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵An aspirational alcohol and cancer risk campaign launched in Australia 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵A study suggests early football matches lead to more drinking and subsequently more domestic violence The South African alcohol industry continues to battle the bansNew handbook released refuting the 7 main industry argumentsWe hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.Subscribe to our podcastOur podcast is now available on all major platforms including Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. Subscribe now and don’t miss any future releases. The ‘Listen to podcast app’ link above should take you to your preferred platform. Consumption, hospital admissions and mortality: Public Health England report on alcohol during the pandemicPublic Health England (PHE) released a report entitled ‘Monitoring alcohol consumption and harm during the COVID-19 pandemic’ on 15 July, which highlights the increase in alcohol harm during 2020. What it says about alcohol consumption With a shift from on-trade alcohol sales to home drinking, off-trade sales increased by 25% from 2019. The largest increase was beer sales, at a 31% increase, however all types of alcohol sales rose:Volume sales increase by alcohol type:With the heaviest 20% of drinkers accounting for 42% of the increase in purchasing, the report states that “This may present a risk that alcohol harm persists or worsens among people already at risk of experiencing harm”. PHE suggests that drinking patterns were polarised, with most people drinking the same as before the pandemic, and similar proportions of people drinking less and more. How did this affect hospital admissions?Admissions due to alcohol highlight the complexities around access to healthcare during the pandemic. Although unplanned admissions decreased by 3.2%, that does not suggest a reduction in harm. Instead, it is likely due to the ‘lockdown effect’ of people wanting to ease pressure on the NHS and also being fearful of catching COVID in hospital.Whereas admissions due to alcohol-related mental and behavioural disorders fell, unplanned admissions for alcoholic liver disease increased by 13.5%. The impact on mortality This increase in alcoholic liver disease admissions led to a dramatic 20% increase in alcohol-specific deaths, with 33% of deaths being among the most deprived societal group. Despite hospital admissions for mental and behavioural disorders seeing a drop, there was a 10.8% increase in deaths from these disorders caused by alcohol. Alcohol poisoning deaths also saw an increase – of 15.4%. Dr Katherine Severi, Chief Executive, Institute of Alcohol Studies, said:“The evidence to support policy action is clear: tackling ultra-cheap alcohol through minimum unit pricing (MUP) and alcohol duty reforms will save lives and reduce costs for the NHS. Scotland has already witnessed a reduction in alcohol-specific deaths following the introduction of MUP in 2018, and with Wales adopting this measure it makes no sense for England to be left behind.”“We also need to see better information provided to consumers about the health risks linked to alcohol, including the risk of breast and bowel cancer. The Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines must be present on all alcohol labels and adverts, to ensure the public are fully-equipped to make informed decisions about their drinking.”The authors of the report concluded that:“Tackling alcohol consumption and harm must be an essential part of the UK government’s COVID-19 recovery plan, given that tackling geographic health disparities are part of the government’s Build Back Better plans.”741,300 cancer cases a year worldwide attributable to alcohol🎵 Podcast feature 🎵 Researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (part of the World Health Organization), have found that over 740,000 cancer cases each year, or – 4.1% – are directly caused by alcohol consumption. In the UK this means 17,000 cases each year. Alcohol causes cancer in a number of ways, including altering DNA, damaging carcinogen metabolites, and altering hormone regulators. The study found that men accounted for 568,700 of the cases, or 77%. Most of the difference can be explain by different levels of consumption, with men globally consuming over double the amount of alcohol that women consume –  1.7 daily drinks compared to 0.73. Of course, this varies across world regions, as do the levels of consumption.Comparison of men and women’s alcohol consumption and attributable cancer casesHowever, the report highlights that with an increase in women involved in employment across the world, and therefore increased resources, women are consuming more alcohol. If this continues, we could see a shift in the proportion of cancer cases. This is particularly poignant when you consider the alcohol industry’s targeting of women as a market for growth, especially in emerging markets such as India. Professor Jeff Collin discussed this at our sustainability seminar, which can you watch from here. We spoke to lead author Harriet Rumgay on our podcast, who said:“Alcohol industry lobbying parallels the tactics of the tobacco industry. It took so long for any kind of sanctions against the tobacco industry after we knew for decades about its links to harm. We need to make policymakers aware of how important it is for our environments to support healthy choices, and to not have such pressures from the industry.”An important point that the report makes is that these cancer cases are not simply among those who drink heavy or risky amounts (>60g and 20-60g of ethanol a day respectively). Moderate drinking accounts for 14% of the cancer cases, showing that when it comes to cancer risk, there is no safe level of consumption. The authors draw attention to WHO’s ‘best buys’ for tackling non-communicable diseases, including policies to increase taxation, limit availability, and reduce marketing of alcohol brands. Rumgay said that a top-down approach is required by governments to increase awareness regarding cancer risks and to reduce harm. Dr Sadie Boniface, Head of Research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: “The results are in line with other studies, and scientists already knew that alcohol causes seven types of cancer. However there is low public awareness of this risk, particularly for breast cancer. The forthcoming consultation on alcohol labelling will be a real opportunity to introduce independent health information on alcohol products, so consumers can make fully informed decisions about their drinking.”A top-down approach in Australia raises awareness of cancer risk: ‘Alcohol & Cancer Go Together’🎵 Podcast feature 🎵 A health campaign that aims to educate the public about the risk of alcohol attributable cancer is expanding across Australia, with the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) leading the campaign. The stated focus is to “reduce alcohol use by increasing awareness of alcohol-caused cancer”. In 2010 Western Australia launched an alcohol and cancer risk campaign called ‘Spread’, which received international recognition for its effects on behaviour change. An independent study of 83 English-language alcohol harm reduction ads found that ‘Spread’ was the most motivational at reducing alcohol consumption. Following the success of Western Australia’s campaign, Victoria state launched its own version, and now Australian Capital Territory is following suit with the campaign ‘Alcohol & Cancer Go Together’. FARE is building upon the previous successful campaigns and incorporating the new alcohol guidelines, which suggest consuming no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks in one day. The campaign will launch for an initial 10-week period across TV, social media, Spotify, YouTube, and outdoor media, to:We spoke to FARE’s Chief Executive, Caterina Giorgi, who highlighted that the dominant messaging in Australia comes from the alcohol industry and has been particularly focused on drinking to cope with COVID. She argues that:“These awareness campaigns that point to the risk and reasons why reducing drinking is so important, are vital to counter that excessive [alcohol] marketing that goes on.” Earlier football matches lead to increased alcohol consumption and domestic violence incidents A team at London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance analysed police data to better understand how football matches affect domestic violence, and whether a change in violence is due to heightened emotional states or increased alcohol consumption.They found that earlier football matches allow more drinking time and subsequently increase domestic violence. As the Guardian points out, “the findings raise questions about previous police requests to have some contentious games played earlier in the day”.The data consisted of police calls and crime over an eight-year period in the Greater Manchester area and was compared to data on Manchester United and Manchester City football matches. This totalled almost 800 games. The LSE team found that during the two-hour duration of the game, domestic violence incidents decreased by 5%, which they said suggests a “substituting effect of football and domestic violence”. However following the game, incidents increased by 2.8% each hour and peaked 10-12 hours later. As there was no change in domestic violence relating to the outcome of the game (win or loss), and no change caused by sober perpetrators, the team concluded that the increase in violence is due to the increase in alcohol consumption. There was no increase in violence when games kicked-off at 7pm, so the researchers say: “Scheduling games later in the evening and implementing policies that reduce drinking can prevent a majority of the football related abuse from occurring.”This study highlights the multitude of factors that need to be considered when implementing policies aimed at reducing violence. As study author Tom Kirchmaier said:“what we actually substitute is a kind of visible crime for invisible crime. You have less crime around the stadium and so on, but you have issues more than eight hours later at home”. There will undoubtedly be studies that look at the Euro 2020 Championship, alcohol consumption, and domestic violence. With the COVID-19 pandemic meaning matches were predominantly watched from home, it will be interesting to see how domestic violence incidents were affected.  Alcohol industry in South Africa: an ongoing battleAt the end of June, South Africa implemented its fourth alcohol ban – which was then extended in mid-July – as the country continues to struggle to tackle coronavirus infections.A few days later, the South African Medical Research Council released a study that found that full restrictions of alcohol reduced unnatural deaths by 26%, around 42 deaths a day. Where there was no full restriction, unnatural deaths were not significantly reduced. The study did state that:“while complete restrictions on sale of alcohol might avert unnatural deaths, long-term implementation of this policy would require significant trade-offs in terms of economic activity, as well as lives and livelihoods”.Professor Charles Parry, co-author of the study, said the study adds to the body of evidence that shows policymakers should be adopting evidence-based strategies known to reduce alcohol harm:“These include stricter advertising and promotions restrictions, minimum unit pricing, increased excise taxes, raising the minimum drinking age, and restrictions on container sizes among others.”The alcohol industry was quick to hit back against the government ban, employing a number of known tactics aimed at undermining the scientific rationale and muddying the argument. These claims have been widely publicised, and touch on a point made by Aadilelah Maker Deidericks (Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance, SAAPA) during the IAS sustainability seminar regarding the media exposure the industry gets compared to alcohol policy advocates – watch from here. The South African industry tactics and arguments include:The stated aim of the ban is to reduce hospital admissions due to alcohol-related trauma, in order to ease pressure on healthcare services and allow them to focus on tackling the pandemic. The industry argued that the Government did not consult with them when deciding on the ban, and that their research was ignored. The judge who dismissed South African Breweries’ court claim said that in a state of disaster the government has the legislation to ban alcohol and that a lack of full and proper consultation is justified.Arguments relating to looting and illicit sales are far more complex than simply due to the alcohol ban, and points at the disingenuous position the industry takes. For instance, since the imprisonment of ex-President Jacob Zuma, there has been widespread violence and rioting in the country after initial protests at his imprisonment turned into a wave of looting. The looting wasn’t directly due to the alcohol ban. Maurice Smithers of SAAPA in late June argued that the main issue was of on-trade alcohol (pubs, bars, and restaurants) and not so much off-trade. He argued that people should be allowed to take alcohol home, as it is when people drink out that “the virus spreads, where people get involved in interpersonal violence and end up in hospital with alcohol-related trauma incidents”.  ‘The Seven Key Messages of the Alcohol Industry’A new publication looks at the strategies and arguments used by the alcohol industry to defend their products and prevent or delay effective harm reduction policies.The book states that “certain projects and strategies look constructive, but are ultimately aimed at preventing or delaying government action”. If you’d like a hard copy of the book, please follow this link. The UK Alcohol Alert (incorporating Alliance News) is designed and produced by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. Please click the image below to visit our website and find out more about us and what we do, or the ‘Contact us’ button. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit instalcstud.substack.com

What can we read from Public Health England numbers as the UK prepares to open up?

印度變種病毒有三種，B.1.617.1（Kappa），B.1.617.2（Delta）和B.1.617.3。 目前問題最大傳播到他國的是Delta，被WHO定為四支VOC之一。Kappa則還是VOI。 高雄24日防疫記者會上有對變種病毒議題上課喔。 https://www.facebook.com/chenchimai/posts/4374784859250427 高醫鍾飲文院長分析： - 什麼是COVID-19病毒變異株？ - 變種病毒的發展？ - 不同變異株的傳播力？ - AZ疫苗對印度2變種病毒（Kappa、Delta）有效？ - AZ疫苗可預防印度變種病毒造成的感染住院？ - 疫苗混打是否可行？ WHO：Delta傳染力增強 已成全球主流病毒株 https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202106180332.aspx Delta病毒的傳染力比最早在英國發現的Alpha變異病毒高60%，而Alpha又比2019年底在中國武漢現蹤的原始病毒株更具傳染力。世衛16日表示，Delta變異株已擴散到超過80國，並持續突變。 根據美國疾病管制暨預防中心（CDC）數據，目前美國新增確診病例中，感染Delta病毒株的患者就占10%，多於上週的6%。CDC主任瓦倫斯基（Rochelle Walensky）呼籲美國人接種疫苗對抗新型冠狀病毒，她預期Delta將成為美國主要流行的病毒株。瓦倫斯基在美國廣播公司（ABC）節目「早安美國」（Good Morning America）中說：「從高度傳染力來看，雖然Delta病毒株很令人擔憂，但我們的疫苗有效。」她說，一旦接種，就對Delta病毒有防護力。 英國近來也發現Delta變異株在境內流行，感染Delta的人數已超過Alpha感染者。目前英國新增確診病例中，超過60%是感染Delta病毒株。世衛上月已將Delta列為「高關注變異株」（variant of concern）。被列為「高關注」，意味這種病毒傳染力更強、更致命，或現有疫苗及療法較難對付。 世衛官員16日表示，有報告稱Delta變異株會造成更嚴重的症狀，但還需要更多研究來證實這些說法。不過，有跡象顯示，Delta可能會引發與其他變異株不同的症狀。斯瓦米納坦說，科學家需要更多關於Delta變異株的資料，包括對疫苗效力的影響。「有多少人感染、其中有多少人住院及重症？這是我們密切關注的事情。」 牛津研究：AZ和輝瑞疫苗對Delta病毒具防護力 https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202106230399.aspx 牛津大學研究人員調查已接種兩劑疫苗者血液中的抗體中和高感染性Delta和Kappa變異病毒的能力。這項研究報告的結果發表在「細胞」（Cell）期刊。報告指出：「並無普遍逃脫的證據，顯示目前這代疫苗對於B.1.617譜系病毒具有防護力。」 英格蘭公共衛生署（Public Health England）14日公布一項分析，內容顯示，施打兩劑輝瑞（Pfizer）/BioNTech疫苗或阿斯特捷利康（AstraZeneca）疫苗，對預防因感染Delta而住院的風險非常有效。 給長輩的AZ疫苗懶人包 https://linshibi.com/?p=39590 高端 聯亞 國產疫苗懶人包 第二期結束就緊急授權可行嗎？ https://linshibi.com/?p=39547 新冠快篩懶人包 普篩 抗體快篩 抗原快篩 https://linshibi.com/?p=36564 新冠肺炎疫情下的防疫須知 常見問題解答FAQ https://linshibi.com/?p=35408 新冠疫苗常見問題懶人包 https://linshibi.com/?p=38945 林氏璧醫師的電子名片 https://lit.link/linshibi Powered by Firstory Hosting

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. In the May 2021 edition:The Office for National Statistics released a report that shows there was a 20% increase in alcohol-specific deaths from 2019 to 2020 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵A research study has shown that alcohol adverts are appealing to adolescents and that this is likely to increase their susceptibility to drinkA study by University College London shows that young people who use social media more, also consume alcohol more The Government has announced that it will be holding a consultation on mandatory alcohol labellingThe House of Lords debated the Commission on Alcohol Harm’s 2020 reportThe World Health Organisation has published a new report assessing changes to alcohol consumption between 2010 and 2019The Institute of Alcohol Studies looks at the financial and social impact of the Treasuries decision to once again freeze alcohol duties this yearAnd The Republic of Ireland is set to introduce minimum unit pricing on alcohol. We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.20% more deaths directly caused by alcohol in 2020In 2020, England and Wales saw the highest number of alcohol-specific deaths since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) began comparing data in 2001. The ONS report, released earlier this month, shows 7,423 deaths were wholly attributable to alcohol last year. This is a 20% increase from 2019 and the highest annual total ever recorded by the ONS. The following graph clearly shows this increase since 2001.Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, told us that “These are the first statistics to really stop me in my tracks in 20 or 30 years; it’s startling and shocking. These data are a warning that the Government would ignore at their peril.” Although the report caveats that it will be some time before we understand the reasons behind these numbers, it does link to Public Health England data that show drinking patterns have changed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Colin Angus, research fellow at the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group, recently published a blog on the IAS website in which he mentions these changing patterns. He states that there has been a shift “away from beer and towards wine and particularly spirits” and that it is likely alcohol sales in supermarkets increased significantly. Although it will be a while before we see the health impacts of these changing patterns, concerns have been raised by health groups about the long-term health impacts of increased heavy drinking during lockdown.An important finding in the ONS report is that men living in the most deprived areas were 4.2 times more likely to die from alcohol-specific issues compared to those living in the least deprived areas. The same trend is seen for women, who are 3 times more likely to die in the most deprived areas. The following graph shows this dichotomy (IMD means Indices of Multiple Deprivation):Dr Sadie Boniface, Head of Research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said “We need to better understand the cause of these deaths by looking at the electronic health records of those who have died. We also need to involve people with lived experience, to understand the what the experience has been of getting appointments and accessing treatment services during the Covid-19 pandemic.”  Alcohol adverts are appealing to adolescents and likely increase susceptibility to drinkA study led by IAS’ Head of Research, Dr Sadie Boniface, and collaborating author’s, has found that adolescents aged 11-17 generally find alcohol adverts appealing and subsequently are more likely to drink.The study is very timely, as it follows a recent piece of research that found that 80% of 11-19 year olds recalled seeing at least one alcohol advert in the past month. Other studies have demonstrated a clear link between under-age people seeing alcohol adverts and increasing their drinking. A report of 277,000 adolescents has shown more restrictive marketing policies were associated with a lower chance of lifetime drinking among adolescents. The research by Boniface et al builds upon this previous research and assesses the relationship between reactions to alcohol adverts and susceptibility to alcohol among adolescents. The study used three alcohol adverts that were not in breach of any marketing codes: a Fosters, Smirnoff and Haig Club advert. It was found that 53% of the 2,582 participants had a positive reaction to the Fosters advert, 52% to Smirnoff, and 34% to Haig Club. Susceptibility to drinking alcohol among those who had never drunk before, but had had a positive reaction to the adverts, increased by 50%. And among the 909 who had consumed alcohol before and had a positive reaction, there was a 40% increase in susceptibility of becoming a higher risk drinker.  Other interesting findings were:Fosters was more popular with men and Smirnoff with women Those of White British ethnicity preferred the Fosters advert whereas other ethnic groups preferred Haig Club’sThe authors of the study highlight their concern about the UK’s complaints-led self-regulation of alcohol marketing, as marketing should not particularly appeal to adolescents. They suggest considering tighter restrictions or bans on certain types of media and marketing, such as product placement and alibi marketing. If not bans, then tighter controls on messaging in alcohol adverts could help limit exposure and appeal; an approach comparable to the loi Évin regulations in France. Does using social media lead to young people drinking more? Young people who use social media more, also consume alcohol more frequently.A study by University College London (UCL) between 2011 and 2016 looked at the social media presence of 6,700 young people aged 10-19 and compared the findings with how often they drank alcohol. Alcohol consumption among young people has decreased globally in recent years. There is still poor understanding as to why it has decreased. Factors such as better legal enforcement, lower affordability, and the rise of new technologies, almost certainly play a part (see 2016 IAS report). With this rise in new technologies and the widespread use of social media platforms, the public sphere and social space amongst young people has somewhat changed. Fewer young people are engaging in activities that are intrinsically linked to alcohol consumption, such as going to nightclubs. Few studies have looked at how social media, and the changing use of social media over time, is related to drinking patterns and changing drinking patterns. UCL’s study is the first in the UK to show a strong correlation between heavier social media use and more frequent alcohol consumption, and that this relationship exists across time. The study found that 18% of 10-15 year olds drank ‘at least monthly’ and that this group used social media more, had more friends and were generally older. Similarly, among young people aged 16-19, those who used social media for less than an hour were less likely to be drinking each month. This age group was also more likely to binge drink three or more times a month if spending more time on social media. Binge drinking was categorised as drinking five or more drinks in one sitting.The researchers concluded that the study was consistent with other studies that show greater use of technology is linked to heavier drinking. Having said that, they do not rule out that the relationship could work the other way: that heavier drinking leads to more frequent use of social media. Professor Yvonne Kelly, who co-authored the study, said “The reasons why time spent online could link to drinking behaviours are not clear but could include having negative experiences in online spaces, as well as exposure to advertising.” They also highlighted that social media may be part of a cultural norm of drinking, for instance posting photos of people drinking. Further, those who use social media may be more sociable already and therefore more likely to be in situations where alcohol is consumed more. Government to hold consultation on alcohol calorie labellingAfter details of an upcoming Government consultation on alcohol labelling were leaked to the media, Dan Carden MP held an adjournment debate on the topic. The proposed consultation was condemned by many representatives of the alcohol industry and in some media outlets. Emma McClarkin, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association described the proposal as “ludicrous” at a time when pubs are trying to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Following suit, Adam Kilcoyne, deputy director of the neoliberal lobbying group the Adam Smith Institute, said “Ministers thinking up this madness should stop and drop the policy.”The Government responded to these comments by saying that “no decisions have yet been taken”. As Dan Carden pointed out in his debate, recent polling on the subject has found that the public are in favour of such labelling, with 74% of people wanting ingredients on labels and 62% wanting nutritional information, such as calories. Jo Churchill – The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care – responded to Mr Carden by saying that the Government believes that “people have the right to accurate information and clear advice about alcohol and the health risks that may be associated with it, to enable them to make informed choices about their drinking and what they consume.” To show its support for considering alcohol labelling policy, the Alcohol Health Alliance UK sent a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock echoing Mr Carden’s sentiment: that the public is generally unaware of the calorie content in alcohol, that the public support the inclusion of such information, and that more information should also be included – such as the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines. The letter has 93 signatories, including 13 Members of Parliament and 10 members of the House of Lords.  So what next? The consultation will be launched “very shortly” with Jo Churchill stating that it is important that steps are taken in a measured way to create benefit for the most people. Commission on Alcohol Harm report: Lords DebateFollowing the Commission’s September 2020 report ‘It’s Everywhere’ Alcohol’s Public Face and Private Harm, a debate was held in the House of Lords on 22 April 2021 to discuss the findings.The report highlighted the harm that alcohol causes in the UK, including that:80 people die each day in the UK because of alcohol-related causes Almost 40% of violent crime is committed under the influence of alcohol200,000 children live with alcohol-dependent parentsBaroness Finlay of Llandaff, the Commission’s chair, introduced the debate by highlighting the report’s findings and recommendations, including: calling for an alcohol strategy with evidence-based policies, minimum unit pricing (MUP) in England, a review on licensing, and more informative labelling.Many of the present Lords supported the report’s points. Baroness Randerson referenced the success that Scotland has had with MUP and that this should be considered in England too. Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe asked whether emerging technologies could be used to help people better understand product calories – and how alcohol labelling should be included with this. Lord Bishop of Carlisle highlighted the link between domestic violence and alcohol and that the Government must rethink its strategy. Baroness Fox of Buckley was less supportive of the report. She stated that she is concerned with the direction of the report, as she believes it exaggerates health harms and links alcohol and drinking with “reprehensible behaviours such as domestic abuse, family neglect, crime and child suicide”. Fox went on to say that MUP is illiberal and treats everyone as a potential problem drinker.In response to the discussion, Lord Bethell of Romford, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care:Commended the Commission on its excellent reportShared his personal experience: that his mother died from alcoholism when he was very youngStated that:The Government is committed to publishing a UK-wide addiction strategy to consider alcohol, drug and gambling problems People have the right to accurate information on drinks, and that a consultation will be launched this summer to consider alcohol labellingThere is no plan to implement MUP but the Government will monitor evidence from Scotland and WalesWorld Health Organization: new report assesses changes in alcohol consumption 2010-2019 The World Health Organization (WHO) European office has published a report on how countries have implemented their SAFER policy recommendations, showing that Eastern Europe and Central Asia have done better in reducing alcohol consumption compared to Western Europe. The study finds that:34 out of 51 countries saw a decrease in alcohol consumption. 17 saw an increaseOverall there has been a reduction in consumption from 11.2 litres per capita in 2010 to 9.8 litres in 2016Eastern European and central Asian countries saw the most significant reductions due to introducing stricter control policiesEU member states only saw an average reduction of 1.5%, which is not statistically significant enough to be considered a real reduction Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges, who has been leading the research, praised the actions of Member States that have followed WHO’s recommendations and implemented alcohol policies. She highlighted Eastern Europe and central Asia’s decreases in alcohol consumption, saying that “These countries currently lead by example in implementing alcohol policies, but they need to maintain and increase their efforts, and other countries of the Region need to follow their lead.”The graph below shows the change in implementation of the five SAFER areas between 2016 and 2019 in the European Region, with the numbers representing the percentage of countries deemed to have implemented the areas sufficiently. It highlights the lack of progress made in Europe and that only drink-driving measures were successfully implemented. However this was already being done before the report and saw no improvement.  The report represents a milestone in assessing alcohol control policies across the region. Moving forward it will provide a barometer with which to assess how these policies are being implemented and the effectiveness of them. IAS Analysis: What does the March budget mean for alcohol duties?Alcohol duties were once again frozen this year, the eighth year out of the last nine that the Government has done so. In this briefing, IAS assesses the impact that the freeze will continue to have on healthcare and the UK’s finances, and what the Government needs to consider. What this means for healthcare?Hospitalisation, deaths, and crime will increaseFreezing of duties between 2012 and 2019 led to:2,223 additional deaths in England and Scotland£341million in additional cost to the NHSAlmost 66,000 additional hospital admissionsWhat this means financially?Government figures (figure 1 below) show that freezing duties will cost the UK £1.7billion from 2020-2026 This amount of money could cover all diagnostic imaging equipment for 2 years or fund 40,000 nurses for a year£14billion lost since 2010: If the Government had stuck to the ‘alcohol duties escalator’ (that kept duties 2% above inflation each year) there would be an additional £14billion in additional revenue since 2010 What should the Government do? In response to the Government’s call for evidence in a review of what it admits is a “highly inconsistent” tax system, IAS recommendsthat:Stronger drinks should be taxed more than weaker ones, instead of taxing by drink typeOn-trade alcohol sellers (bars and restaurants) should have a lower level of duty to off-trade sellers (supermarkets) Duties should be automatically updated based on new evidence, instead of annually during budgetsFigure 1Ireland to introduce minimum unit pricingThe Republic of Ireland is pushing ahead with plans to implement minimum unit pricing (MUP) on alcohol by January 2022, despite Northern Ireland not committing. Ireland had been delaying implementation in order for Northern Ireland to implement it at the same time. This was to avoid cross-border trips to purchase cheaper alcohol. The Republic’s Frank Feighan, Minister of State at the Department of Health, stated that Northern Ireland is now “not bringing it in before the northern elections in May 2022”. Although he conceded that there could be issues with cross-border trips, he believes that the positives “far outweigh the negatives”, highlighting the effectiveness of the policy in Scotland in reducing deaths – despite bordering England which does not have MUP. With Scotland, Wales and now Ireland bringing in MUP, pressure is mounting for England to do the same. Figure shows the reduction in alcohol purchases following minimum unit pricing starting in Scotland (vertical line).  The UK Alcohol Alert is designed and produced by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. Please click the image below to visit our website and find out more about us and what we do, or the ‘Contact us’ button. Thank you.WHO’s SAFER initiativeStrengthen restrictions on alcohol availabilityAdvance and enforce drink driving counter measuresFacilitate access to screening, brief interventions and treatmentEnforce bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotionRaise prices on alcohol through excise taxes and pricing policies This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit instalcstud.substack.com

Dr Zoe Williams is a NHS GP, media medic, health educator and a clinical champion of Public Health England's Better Health campaign, encouraging people to make healthier changes. Zoe has competed at a high level in a number of sports including Athletics and Rugby Union and appeared as ‘Amazon' on Sky 1's Gladiators where she found that hitting people with giant cotton buds really is as much fun as it looks. In today's episode, we reflect on the first time she was interviewed on This Morning about coronavirus, how exercise is her true passion and how physical activity was given a proper rebrand during lockdown. She also explains the science behind why exercise produces ‘happy hormones' and how it can actually change your brain chemistry. We also speak about her pregnancy and how she has achieved her two ambitions - to become a doctor and a mother! *** Life and Soul is hosted by Emma Forbes, produced by Georgie Rutherford and edited by Steve Campen. If you're looking for more content by Emma, please take a look at her new website which is a curation of everything she loves in life - from fashion and food to health & wellbeing:  https://www.byemma.co/ Follow us: @byemma.forbes @emmaforbeslifestyle Follow Dr Zoe: @drzoewilliams We would also love to hear from you so feel free to send us an email if you enjoyed this episode to hello@byemma.co

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. In this edition:Chancellor announces a blanket freeze on alcohol duties for a second consecutive year in the spring Budget 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵Irish data highlights ways in which the pandemic has slowed progress in tackling alcohol misuseResearch finds association between alcohol-related violence and deprivation, amplified by the availability of alcohol 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵Doctors in Scotland urge ministers to break sponsorship link between alcohol and sportWe hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.Budget 2021: Duties for alcohol kept on ice🎵 Podcast feature 🎵All alcohol duties were frozen for the second year in a row in the 2021 Budget, marking the eighth year out of the last nine that alcohol duties have failed to keep up with inflation (03 Mar).According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s costings, the freeze in alcohol duties – a cut, in real terms – are estimated to cost roughly £1·7bn to the year 2025/26.Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's statement came ahead of the government's much anticipated response to the alcohol duty review consultation held late last year.Responding to the announcement, IAS Chief Executive Katherine Severi said:It is disappointing that the Chancellor has chosen to freeze alcohol duty today, which represents a cut in real terms. This will do nothing to help the thousands of families across the country whose lives are blighted by alcohol, an issue which has become even more acute during the pandemic.We need to rethink how alcohol is taxed to ensure public health is always given priority over alcohol industry profits. Raising alcohol duty can generate vital public funds to support the NHS and social care services and the public are largely supportive of this policy.The ongoing alcohol duty review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve a broken system which promotes cheap, strong alcohol that wrecks lives and burdens our NHS and public services. We will continue to work with government to propose a fairer system that produces net gains for society, not just supermarket profits.A good pandemic for HM Treasury?One reason for Rishi Sunak’s decision to freeze all alcohol duties for another year may lie in the increased revenue from heavier drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), HM Treasury stand to rake in £800 million more than predicted for the financial year 2020/21. This makes alcohol duties ‘one of the few tax streams that has outperformed our pre-virus forecast’, as ‘higher sales in supermarkets and other shops have more than offset the loss in receipts from the closures of pubs and restaurants for large parts of the year’.In an article for Alcohol Change UK, alcohol policy modeller Colin Angus suggested that ‘persistently freezing duties changes public perception, encouraging the idea that duty freezes for alcohol are the norm, making it politically more difficult for the Chancellor to increase duties in line with inflation in future years’. You can hear Colin Angus describe this issue in more detail on the podcast.Despite a real terms cut in alcohol duties, some sectors of the industry were left dissatisfied by the Budget, with Society of Independent Brewers chief executive James Calder claiming that it ‘does nothing for independent breweries’ and others believing that approach to beer duty ‘could have been bolder’ (Morning Advertiser, 05 Mar).Yet, this has still not stopped the ‘deluge’ of bookings made for when pubs reopen for outdoor service from 21 April (BBC News Business, 05 Mar), indicating that not only does a pent-up demand exist regardless of the Chancellor’s proclamations on duties, but also that businesses in the hospitality sector could have benefitted from fiscal measures more closely linked to their day-to-day costs, such as rents and business rates.The Budget also neglected to mention any policies to deal with the looming public health crisis in alcohol-related morbidity, as was warned about days before (British Medical Journal, 01 Mar):We are already at crisis point, with the most recent Global Drugs Survey revealing that the UK rate of hospital admissions because of alcohol was higher than among users of any other drug cited in the report apart from heroin and with more than 5% of people under 25 in the UK reporting having sought hospital treatment after getting drunk.Subsequently, a host of public health experts, led by the Alcohol Health Alliance, expressed their disappointment at the duty freeze in the Times (09 Mar). But they did reserve hope for the outcome of a government review to be conducted later this year:… providing an opportunity to overhaul an inconsistent system causing alcohol harm. As a result of the present system it is possible to drink the low-risk weekly guideline of 14 units for just £2·68 in England — about the price of a high-street cup of coffee. This is causing immeasurable damage.The government must create a scaled alcohol duty structure that ensures the strongest products are taxed the most to encourage drinkers to move away from purchasing the most dangerous drinks. With 80 people across the UK dying from an alcohol-related cause every day, we need urgent action to tackle this crisis.Ireland – pandemic slows progress on alcohol misuseNew research findings have shown that while there have been declines in some sections of society regarding Irish drinking habits, the onset of COVID-19 has threatened to reverse them in others.A report titled Health Behaviours, Health Outcomes and Contextual Factors between 1998-2018 found that rates of alcohol use among school-aged children ‘significantly decreased since 1998’ (Irish Times, 08 Mar).Led by senior researcher Aoife Gavin in collaboration with the HBSC research team at the Health Promotion Research Centre in NUI Galway, the study comprised of a sample of 15,557 pupils aged 10 to 17 years from 255 primary and post-primary schools across Ireland, and found a 14 percentage point drop in respondents reporting having ever been drunk over the 20-year period (33% in 1998 vs 19% in 2018).However, the pandemic has led to the dominance of home drinking, which has in turn exacerbated the problem of alcohol’s accessibility to underage drinkers. Reports that on-demand alcohol delivery ‘skyrocketed’ during lockdown ‘with no checks’ on serving children caused Teachtaí Dála (TDs) to call on Justice Minister Helen McEntee to introduce restrictions on delivery services (Irish Sun, 14 Mar).Overall alcohol tax receipts data in Ireland showed a 2·4% decline, suggesting a drop in annual consumption of 6% in 2020, meaning that the country’s public finances ‘experienced little impact’ of the pandemic (Irish Times, 11 Mar). And within the alcohol category, there were significant fluctuations among particular beverages: while excise receipts from beer sales fell 17%, and 11% for cider, wine consumption rose 12% in 2020 ‘even though many restaurants where it would frequently be consumed were closed for a considerable portion of the year’, indicating a sharp year-on-year increase in the number of people drinking wine at home. Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) expressed their disappointment with the figures, with head of communications and advocacy Eunan McKinney remarking that they highlight ‘the extraordinary shift that has taken place among Ireland’s drinking population and the ocean of alcohol that has poured into the nation’s homes.’Feighan: Ireland to implement MUP with or without the northGiven the urgency of the problem identified by AAI, the Irish government is considering implementing minimum unit pricing, under the 2018 Public Health (Alcohol) Act, asynchronously from its neighbour, Northern Ireland. Frank Feighan, the junior minister for public health, explained that the Oireachtas could ‘not wait any longer for Northern Ireland’ to protect problem drinkers, after their health minister, Robin Swann, elected to defer minimum unit pricing until after the next Stormont assembly elections in May 2022 (The Times (paywalled), 15 Mar).Swann told the assembly: ‘I do not think that we have the scope in [the current assembly term], by way of capacity in my department or the time that is necessary to bring it forward in a meaningful way, but I intend to put it to consultation so that the preparatory work is done for whomever comes into this role in the next mandate.’In response to this development, Feighan said: ‘I will be recommending to government that we have to move. I have talked to minister [for health] Donnelly and I understand he has spoken with the Taoiseach, and I have talked to the Tánaiste. I think it will be discussed in the coming weeks as to what the best way forward would be, and that will be a matter for cabinet. Unfortunately, there may be unintended consequences around excise duties… it would have been ideal to move with Northern Ireland but we cannot wait any longer. I would like to have a short consultation with stakeholders like publicans and off-licences, and then to move with the legislation we have.’AAI said it recognised some consultation may be required to refine the logistics and timing of the measures ‘but we trust that the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the leader of the Green Party will expedite matters over the coming weeks and that operation will commence in early autumn’.Alcohol-related violence and deprivation🎵 Podcast feature 🎵This week, Lucy Bryant and Dr Carly Lightowlers presented their research on alcohol-related violence and deprivation to an audience at the Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) Alcohol Occasionals sessions. Between them, the researchers shared findings suggesting that those in the lowest socioeconomic groups experience disproportionate rates of alcohol-related violence and that increases in alcohol availability and deprivation, when seen together, increase the rates of such violence to a greater degree than when either of these factors appears alone.You can listen to Dr Lightowlers explain the research in more detail in our podcast, and you can also watch the presentation in full on SHAAP’s website.In other researchAlcohol pricing policies such as duty increases and minimum unit pricing appear to target men’s drinking habits more effectively than women’s, according to a new study published in Addiction (02 Mar).Researchers found that each of the three policies modelled – a 10% duty increase, and minimum unit prices (MUP) of £0·50 and £0·70 per UK unit – would lead to larger estimated reductions in consumption and hospital admission rates among men than women. The authors also showed how this is driven by gender differences in alcohol consumption, purchasing patterns and harm among adult drinkers in England, leading women’s spending to increase more than men’s. At full effect – that is, once consumption changes have worked their way through to health outcomes - a £0·50 MUP is expected to lead to a sevenfold larger reduction in consumption and a three times larger reduction in hospital admissions for men compared to women.The level and frequency of alcohol consumption rose among drinkers in the UK during lockdown, according to University College London researchers published in the Drug and Alcohol Review journal (03 Mar). Surveying a self-selected sample of nearly 3,000 participants between 30 April and 14 June 2020, they found that 30% of participants reported drinking more frequently in lockdown, with 16% reporting drinking more units per drinking occasion and 14% reporting more frequent heavy episodic drinking. They also found that ‘deterioration in psychological wellbeing was consistently associated with increased frequency of drinking’.The first UK COVID-19 lockdown saw a “rapid and sustained” fall in violence outside the home in the Welsh capital city, a new study led by Cardiff University has shown (Journal of the American Medical Association, 05 Mar). A research team from Cardiff University’s Crime and Security Research Institute (CSRI) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied data from Cardiff’s sole emergency department (ED) from March to June 2020, comparing it to weekly data from January 2019 onwards, and found almost 60% fewer attendances per week for violent injury outside the home in the first lockdown. Lead author professor Jonathan Shepherd, from the CSRI, said: ‘This sudden fall in violent injury is the largest any of us has ever seen. It’s likely to reflect closure of city centre pubs and clubs in and around which most violence takes place, and widespread compliance with lockdown restrictions.’ Regarding violence in the home, no significant change was found in any category, which professor Shepherd said was ‘reassuring’. The amount of alcohol consumed during a given drinking occasion is strongly associated with the duration of the occasion combined with the beverage type and serving size, according to a study reported in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (05 Mar). Researchers from the University of Sheffield, UK, analysed data from over 18,000 adult drinkers in Great Britain who wrote a seven-day retrospective drinking diary and between them recorded the characteristics of over 46,000 drinking occasions, with the aim of identifying which features – and combinations of features – are most predictive of the units of alcohol consumed during drinking occasions in Great Britain.They found that longer occasion duration, drinking spirits as doubles, and drinking wine were the strongest predictors of heavy alcohol consumption, and that the strongest predictors of longer drinking occasions were drinking in both on-trade venues (eg pubs) and off-trade (eg at home), starting earlier in the day, and drinking with friends.A review of the latest evidence and research on liver disease, authored by over 30 leading hepatology consultants and senior figures from the Foundation for Liver Research, British Liver Trust and Public Health England, has found that almost a quarter of patients (24%) admitted to hospital with liver disease die within 60 days (The Lancet, 11 Mar). These patients have not been previously diagnosed and are admitted as an emergency. The report also observes that people with advanced liver disease admitted to hospital as an emergency, are seven to eight times more likely to die than those admitted with a stroke or heart attack.Updated estimates of population level alcohol consumption undertaken in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, have found an estimated net effect of minimum unit pricing (MUP) of -3·5% in off-trade alcohol sales per adult in the year following its implementation in Scotland in 2018 (Public Health Scotland, 16 Mar).Whilst slightly lower than previously reported, both the estimated net effect of MUP and the observed impact of MUP on different drink categories are comparable with the original findings, and the overall estimate for Scotland in 2019 remains at 9·9 litres of pure alcohol per adult, equivalent to 19·1 units of alcohol per adult per week and the lowest level of pure alcohol sold in Scotland since 1994.Sainsbury’s are the most likely of the major supermarkets to push online shoppers in Scotland towards alcohol, according to campaign group Obesity Action Scotland (17 Mar). Their report found that overall, customers are bombarded by around 500 promotions during the average online grocery shop, with around a tenth (11%) of all promotions for alcohol. Sainsbury’s was the worst offender, hosting the most alcohol promotions as a proportion of all food and drink promotions for both healthy (basket 1) and standard (basket 2) shopping trips.Doctors urge ministers to break sponsorship between alcohol and sport in ScotlandDoctors have renewed calls for Scottish ministers to break links between alcohol and sport with a clampdown on lucrative sponsorship deals, after an alcohol producer declared its support for Scotland’s national football team (The Times, paywalled, 28 Mar).Alcohol policy campaigners Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) said children were especially susceptible to advertising and called for robust restrictions to be considered by the next Scottish government after May’s Holyrood elections.Recent events have exposed a sharp divide between sporting associations that embrace the backing of alcohol producers and those who spurn it: earlier in the month (22 Mar) Tennent’s Lager tweeted its continuing support for Scotland’s national football teams. This stands in sharp contrast to Scottish Women’s Football, who struck up a sponsorship agreement with Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) in March 2019.‘It’s time for others to follow their lead and protect their fans and players,’ said SHAAP interim director, Lindsay Paterson. ‘Alcohol companies have large sums available for sponsorship and it is understandable but disappointing that Scotland’s national teams have accepted this sponsorship.’In response, the Scottish FA said that Tennent’s was the ‘original supporter’ of Scottish football and had been an integral part of the game dating back to 1974. ‘Over the years they have made a positive impact at all levels of the sport, and we look forward to building on that together in the years to come,’ they said in a statement.The UK Alcohol Alert (incorporating Alliance News) is designed and produced by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. Please click the image below to visit our website and find out more about us and what we do, or the ‘Contact us’ button. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit instalcstud.substack.com

Clare Barstow spent 25 years in prison, having been convicted of murder nearly 30 years ago. Since her release has volunteered for prison charities, given many talks in prisons and in the community, and helps to shape services for the better through sharing her experiences. Sarah Skett is a Registered Forensic Psychologist and an Associate Fellow fo the British Psychological Society. She has worked with people who have committed crimes for nearly 30 years and is Head of the Joint Offender Personality Disorder pathway for both the NHS and HM Prison and Probation Service. Jake Shaw is an Associate Director and Consultant Forensic Psychologist with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust. He specialises in working in the field of personality disorder. Further reading: Livesley, W. J., Dimaggio, G., & Clarkin, J. F. (Eds.). (2016). Integrated treatment for personality disorder: A modular approach. The Guilford Press.   Bladzell, J., Prince, S., & Ramsden, J. (Eds.) (2020). Working effectively with personality disorder: Contemporary and critical approaches to clinical and organisational practice. Pavillion publishing and media Ltd.   Public Health England. (2018). Gender specific standards to improve health and wellbeing for women in prison in England. www.gov.uk/phe

On this episode, we continue blasting COVID Hypocrite Number 1 in California Governor Gavin Newsom, talk COVID-19 stories around the web, get into should adults still be playing video games, pilots drawing a penis in the sky, paying $60k for a class on how to organism, where Americans are moving to and this idea on if lower Oregon should leave for Idaho.    On this episode…   01:25 – we kick off the episode with Ken Turnage II talks about the gunfire that struck his office this past week in the City of Antioch. 05:29 – We jump into California Governor Gavin Newsom's curfew and how Newsom is COVID Hypocrite number one due to his stunt at the French Laundry along with lawmakers going to Hawaii when telling others not to travel. 07:55 – Pennsylvania Governor announces people should wear masks even in their own homes. 08:55 – We discuss this study from data collected by Public Health England of where contact tracing of 128,000 people of where people are getting COVID-19. We go over the top 10 locations where people are getting COVID.  Supermarkets were the most common location of people who reported to have tested positive for the virus. Bars and Restaurants were under 1%. We talk about how protests you are apparently immune from getting COVID. Donald Trump rallies are apparently super spreaders. https://www.the-sun.com/news/1826530/supermarkets-most-common-place-catch-covid/ 15:10 – We talk about how a New York Restaurant is requiring a $50 COVID-19 test before any indoor dining?  https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-restaurant-to-require-customers-to-take-50-covid-test-before-indoor-dining/2733745/ 18:10 - A bar in Rome has had enough, they have banned any virus talk https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201120-rome-bar-bans-virus-talk 19:00 – We jump into Black Friday and the one toy you always wanted for Christmas which this years gift is a Play Station 5. This then gets into the idea of adult men playing video games and if it should be accepted. 29:25 – back to Black Friday, is it going to happen or is it going to be online? How is it going to work with social distancing?  Should Christmas gift expectations be reduced? 33:50 – possibility of a fantasy porn draft? A new version of fantasy sports. 35:06 – Porn in the sky. Pilot in support of a soccer captain, drew a penis in the sky in support of masturbating footballer.  Two pilots are now under investigation.  The flight tracking software captured the image. https://metro.co.uk/2020/11/16/pilots-draw-penis-in-sky-with-jet-to-support-russia-football-captain-13603884/?ito=cbshare    40:32 – We talk about this “orgasm cult” under investigation by the FBI… which is sad, but their course is up to $60k to learn how to have an orgasm,  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8962029/Inside-orgasm-cult-investigation-FBI.html 45:20 – We get into Kyle Rittenhouse bail and how Ricky Schroder helped pay the bail. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bail-donations-from-silver-spoon-star-ricky-schroder-helped-free-kenosha-shooter-kyle-rittenhouse-says-attorney-193135919.html 48:39 – Elon Musk and his $160k per second and now third richest in the world and says we will be on Mars in glass domes by 2050.  https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/elon-musk-mars-colony-spacex-starship-b1759074.html 51:55 – We talk about the US Census Data and where Americans are moving. We talk about the top 10 states. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/americans-are-moving-to-these-states?slide=11 53:35 – Rural Oregon counties wants to join Idaho. https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/regional/greater-idaho-oregon-residents-two-rural-counties-push-join-state-political-views/277-bd762e69-5ec9-4652-9c44-8e4c5defc305 1:02:08 – Homicides across America rose more than 28% in first 9 months of 2020. https://covid19.counciloncj.org/2020/07/28/crime/ 1:06:05 – You can now eat human steaks; scientist insist its not cannibalism. Would you eat human meat?  https://metro.co.uk/2020/11/18/you-can-now-eat-human-steak-scientists-insist-its-not-cannibalism-13615745/?ito=cbshare    1:11:00 – We talk about a State Trooper dressed in a Star Wars costume making a DUI arrest in Nevada. https://apnews.com/article/las-vegas-nevada-halloween-driving-under-the-influence-baf5586d7b44ab81a20b68e2cc767658    

Professor Karol Sikora talks about Public Health England being scrapped and cancer care. Royal Biographer Angela Levin speaks to Mike about The Sussexes. Neil Oliver covers the proposed Scottish Hate Crime Bill, over fears it will impact freedom of speech. Patrick Christys talks to Mike about parked cars and parking tickets. Finally, Stuart Winter takes the homeschooling segment on penguins! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi folks! In this episode, I speak with Dr Colin Brown (@cstewartb on twitter) an infectious diseases expert who splits his time between working for Public Health England in Glocal Health management and as an honorary clinician at the Royal Free Hospital. He is perfectly placed to contextualise the handling of this pandemic both in the UK and around the world in light of previous epidemics and explain in more detail the purpose of modelling, the reality behind flattening the curve vs herd immunity, the evidence of mutational strains, and what our 'new normal' will look like. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rialina/support

THE BLUEPRINT: https://www.anhinternational.org/campaigns/health-sustainability-blueprint/ Last week, Rob Verkerk PhD attended the Westminster Forum event entitled, Next steps for public health in England - commissioning, collaboration and innovation in prevention. Following on from the release of Public Health England's (PHE) green paper on health prevention last July, the seminar focused on the priorities for improving prevention and public health in England - despite the state of the NHS. The NHS is breaking because pharma's drug model in tandem with the silos of conventional medicine have been unable to stem the tide of chronic disease, deal with an aging population and the increasing mental health crisis. The NHS is on its knees and remains the subject of heated political and citizen debate in the UK. SUBSCRIBE to our NEWSLETTER: https://www.anhinternational.org/#subscribe FOLLOW US if you want to become part of a growing community of Health Creators. Learn about improving your health and maximising your vitality in a natural way, or if you want to keep up to date with our campaigns, research and education work. Visit our WEBSITE: https://www.anhinternational.org/ Like us on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ANHInternational/ Follow us on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anhcampaign The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) International is an independent, internationally-active, non-profit organisation. Our mission is to promote and protect natural and sustainable approaches to healthcare worldwide. We are Health Creators and our passion is the pursuit of optimal health and health care sustainability by working with, not against, nature. Please consider supporting our work so that we can to continue to support you! Donate to ANH-Intl: https://www.anhinternational.org/donate

Figures from Public Health England in 2018 estimate almost one third of people living with HIV in the UK are women - of that, 69% are black African women. Aisha Namurach from The Terrence Higgins, Horcelie Sinda, who revealed she was affected by HIV while competing in the 2017 Miss Congo UK pageant and Juliet Reid, who was diagnosed with HIV whilst pregnant and is CEO of Centre for All Families Positive Health join regular podcasters 5 Live journalist Jessie Aru-Phillips, Scottish supermodel Eunice Olumide MBE and TV presenter Scarlette Douglas to share their stories. You'll also hear from Kelechi Okafor's viral sensation #SallyInHR.

This week Hazel is joined by Dr Zoe Williams and Dr John Sykes. Zoe and John are both GP's who are passionate about lifestyle medicine. They discuss lifestyle medicine within the NHS, girls in sport, Public Health England guidelines and reversing type 2 diabetes. Zoe can be found under @drzoewilliams on instagram and twitter and John can be found under @healthandfitnessdoctor on instagram and @Johnsykes_6 on twitter.