'Incredible' milestone reached as Sweden becomes a smoke-free country
thelocal.se27 points by Teever an hour ago
27 points by Teever an hour ago
Last time I went there I saw a founder that couldn’t do an interview without changing zyn pouches every literal five (5) minutes
FT ran this headline a few days ago: French nicotine pouch ban is ‘attack on Swedish way of life’, minister says
What a masterclass in modern spin:
1: Take a problem, in this case tobacco consumption
2: Isolate a part of it, ideally a the part that is most visible and/or easiest to go after. As others have mentioned, Sweden has a large culture of non-smoked tobacco consumption
3: Define an easily achieved win condition, brand it as complete success. In this case "smoke-free" means under 1 in 20 Swedes smoke
4: Get your buddies in the press to publish breathless articles on your 'Incredible' milestone
5 (ideally optional): If anyone ever tries to hold you accountable, double down.
To be entirely fair, a whole country switching from smoking to safer oral nicotine is a massive health win. The bad things in cigarettes are mostly not nicotine.
> Smoke-free
> Less than 5%
Incredible milestone but when 1 in 20 is still smoking I feel like it's a bit early to call yourself smoke free.
As a child in the 1970s I visited family there and my memory is that it seemed like every adult and older teen smoked. Often filterless. So it's quite a change in a few decades.
I think the UK is lower than this - it's pretty unusual to see people smoking. Far less common than on the continent.
Perhaps that's location dependent. I was just there and was taken aback by how many more people I saw smoking than where I live in the US. Still not as much as southern or eastern Europe, but more than the large US city nearest me.
It's low indeed, but still around 10% in 2024: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthan...
Yeah... I live here, and I would definitely not call us smoke free. But it's gotten better.
If 1 in 20 is smoke free, I’m declaring the 1 in 10 rate in the us as ALMOST smoke free.
Sweden is unusual in that it has a culture of using snus, a non-smoking tobacco preparation, and in fact it is unique among the EU member states in having it actually be legal (it's banned EU-wide, but Sweden got an opt-out in the accession negotiations). Neighbouring Norway also has legal snus but Norway isn't a full EU member.
This probably contributes to the low smoking rates, but it also means that Swedish politicians love acting like the tobacco industry is their best friend,[1][2] because it's in the national interest to protect this uniquely Swedish tradition or whatever. And recently, the so-called white snus (Swedicism; English name is nicotine pouches, only Sweden considers this a kind of snus) like ZYN is a way for the Swedish tobacco industry to get a new generation of young people hooked in nicotine, interestingly including ones outside Sweden.
[1] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/regeringen-presenterade-t...
[2] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/svenskar-i-eu-pratar-flit...
Here's a free, fact-packed, breakdown on both smoking and "snus" in Sweden: https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/the-public-health-agency...
Numbers are from 2024, but smoking was at 5.4%, and snus at 15.7%.
> The increase [in use of snus] is particularly evident among women aged 16–29 years, where the proportion of daily snus users has risen from 3 percent in 2018 to 18 percent in 2024.
Geez that's a little alarming. Looks like that's basically all down to nicotine pouches too.
We will not tolerate snus slander here! long live swedish match
I will openly hate on Swedish snusers until they stop littering their pouches and cakes every-damn-where. Some of those guys even throw it onto indoor ceilings. It’s disgusting.
In korea people will chug through americanos like its water and dump the cups on the streets because there are no trash cans. If they had nic pouches there there is a good chance theyd clog the sewer system.
Id still take nic pouches and plastic cups over cig smoking losers anyday of the week
I wonder what their next moral/health/social/environmental crusade will be. Governments have made vast sums out of tobacco duty, so what do they need to make up for that?