This report, written in partnership with Cancer Research UK, examines the performance of stop smoking services in England during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Key Points

• The proportion of local authorities commissioning a specialist stop smoking service has risen year-on-year from 65% in 2018 and 69% in 2019 to 77% in 2020.
• The COVID-19 pandemic forced local authorities to reconfigure their stop smoking services at an unprecedented speed. They adapted quickly and many found that smokers welcomed remote methods of engagement such as telephone consultations.
• The impact of the pandemic on the...

Abstract

Importance: This study is part of a programmatic effort evaluating the effects of reducing nicotine content of cigarettes to minimally addictive levels.

Objective: To examine whether very low-nicotine-content (VLNC) cigarettes decrease smoking rates and dependence severity among smokers with psychiatric disorders or socioeconomic disadvantage.

Design, Setting, and Participants: These 3 randomized clinical trials were performed at the University of Vermont, Brown University, and Johns Hopkins University between October 2016 and September 2019. Participants received 12 weeks of...

Tobacco Tactics investigate the strategies and tactics the tobacco industry uses to undermine public health. The organisation use rigorously-sourced profiles of the key players, organisations, allies and techniques of the tobacco industry make Tobacco Tactics a vital resource. Journalists, academics, policy-makers, advocates and researchers use our work because they value our evidence-based approach and accessible style.

Tobacco Tactics was developed by the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) at the University of Bath

Read more about Tobacco Tactics here.