The article doesn’t mention vaping, so is it included or excluded in the definition of “smoking”? Are vapes even a thing in Sweden? I know Snus are a popular alternative there.
Snus is their secret weapon.
Unlike with smoking, I have no problem with Snus. People consuming it are only harming themselves. People smoking on the other side are harming others. Commonly they also couldn’t care less about that and a shockingky high number discards its fire hazardous, toxic and non-degredable waste anywhere they stand or walk, as if nothing would be wrong with that. EDIT: Ok, I probably have to correct the last point, Snus consumers might soread their waste as well, but at least its degradeable, isn’t it?
Very much a thing here. Unfortunately.
It’s a paywalled article, so here’s an archival link
“Smoke-free” in this case means fewer than 5% of people smoke daily. As of 2025 that figure stands at 4.8% in Sweden
The proportion of daily smokers dropped from 16 to 4.8 percent between 2003 and 2025, according to the new report.
Meanwhile, Sweden has seen a sharp increase in the use of snus in recent years – the small nicotine pouches popular in Sweden – a factor that the tobacco industry often highlights as a major reason for Sweden’s low proportion of smokers.
Fewer smokers is good of course, but I am not sure if the consumption of tabacco is really going down significantly. It rather seems to be moving from cigarettes to snus, which I’m not sure is a good thing.
Snus is banned in the rest of the EU. Sweden has an exemption on that ban, which they pre-emptively carved out when they were in talks for joining the EU
It’s allowed in Finland now too because too many young people were just smuggling it in from Sweden.
Nasty as shit, I see 20 year olds with rotten looking gums, leaving the packs everywhere.
But God forbid cannabis is allowed /s
Government hypocrisy. Or corruption.
Unfortunately all 4.8% seem to want to do it right below my apartment window
Fewer smokers is good of course, but I am not sure if the consumption of tabacco is really going down significantly. It rather seems to be moving from cigarettes to snus, which I’m not sure is a good thing.
It is undeniably a good thing. Smoking increases your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease by a lot. Snus does not significantly increase your risk of lung or oropharyngeal cancer. Nor does it increase your incidence of strokes or heart attacks. Nor does it lead to copd. More important than a lot lower risks for people who choose to use tobacco products, it eliminates all adverse effects on people like me who do not want any tobacco exposure.
Snus is also a contributing factor for cancer, and it will absolutely wreck your gum health, lets not pretend that is a faultfree solution.
https://news.ki.se/one-in-three-cases-of-oral-cancer-are-due-to-smokeless-tobacco
From your very first link:
It is interesting to note that the proportion in northern Europe is very low, as ‘Swedish snus’ does not seem to be linked to oral cancer. The results are of great importance both from a global health perspective and in terms of the health of migrants." says Cecilia Magnusson, co-author of the publication.
And the article in the Lancet also says:
“Evidence on the risk of oral cancer associated with using Swedish snus—a type of moist tobacco most commonly consumed in Nordic countries as pouches held in the mouth—is currently inconclusive, with several studies suggesting a significantly increased risk of up to three-times among ever daily snus users compared with never daily users, and others suggesting no statistically significant higher risk among current users compared with non-users, due to the much lower levels of NNN and NNK than in other smokeless tobacco products.”
Data from their own study shows that PAF-associated oral cancers are lower in Norway and Sweden compared to Northern Europe as a whole, despite them famously being the main consumers of snus.
I’m not saying snus is healthy. Using snus is definitely worse than not using any tobacco at all. But it is without a doubt a lot healthier than smoking.
Like I said in my first comment though, this is really of secondary importance. The most important thing is that you’re not increasing the cancer risk of people who happen to be in your vicinity by using snus. If every smoker switched to snus, the world would be a better place.
The most important thing is that you’re not increasing the cancer risk of people who happen to be in your vicinity by using snus.
Yup, certainly the most important for me, because I will never willingly put any of this crap into my mouth and lungs.
Fourth paragraph in first link:
"It is interesting to note that the proportion in northern Europe is very low, as ‘Swedish snus’ does not seem to be linked to oral cancer.
British tobacco and Imperial brands delivering some nice and healthy facts to the union… Good on you! Roche pharmaceuticals are backing you up all the way to the chemotherapy.
Here is America we hit a similar milestone last year, with fewer than 10% of the population smoking. That’s the first time it’s gone below 10%.
Then I remembered that the article didn’t mention vaping, which is way up. It’s good that smoking is down, but if most of it is just being replaced by a product we know nearly nothing about, I’m not sure how much of an improvement that really is.
Sorry, wasn’t paywalled for me. Would have provided similar link otherwise.
No problem. You can edit the post’s description to add the link after the fact.
You got it covered, I’ll let you be the good guy here. 😁
Synthetic nicotine (non-tobacco) snus, which are usually just called nicotine pouches or “all-white”, are not banned for consumption in the rest of the EU. A lot of countries have bans on the sale of flavoured nicotine or menthol nicotine products due to menthol cigarettes which covers a lot of all-white nicotine pouches but you can still consume them.
Except for in France for example, where consumption of tobacco-free snus is now illegal.
https://www.service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/actualites/A18450?lang=en
But of course, they explicitly allow chewing tobacco, which is 100x worse for your health than tobacco snus.
Good to know - Crazy they did that but you can still buy tobacco.
The general idea of the snus-bans is that snus is not commonly consumed outside of the Nordics, so it’s better to pre-emptively ban it. They are trying to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.
Cigarettes are socially and culturally engrained after a century of normalization, and it’s a lot more difficult to ban it. Even vapes are already somewhat at the stage where it’s nornalized enough that outright banning it becomes difficult.
Of course the EU is full of “snus” which is not tobacco-based, and merely gets nicotine from somewhere else.
I dont know how it works but snus should be illegal in hungary but you can still buy it legally. Heard the same for finland, probably some loophole.
The nicotine doesn’t originate from tobacco
In the age group of 17-29 years, an increase in total nicotine use is visible, from around 35 percent in the early 2010s to 44 percent by 2025.
It’s a mixed issue; cigarette smoking has externalities like second-hand smoke and cigarette butt litter that make that particular form of nicotine intake especially problematic for society. However I agree that it’s somewhat disingenuous to ignore the overall nicotine consumption issue.
The Swedish way to become smoke-free is however closed to all other European countries as snus which is used as an alternative is illegal everywhere else. Also they just traded one way of nicotine administration against another, though I do think it’s less harmful, but I’m not a medical professional.
So not as incredible as this headline makes it sound
It is less harmful for bystanders in the least but should totally be banned alongside smoking itself.
Why should it be banned? It is not harmful to bystanders, and a lot less harmful than smoking to individual users. Even passive smoking entails a higher risk of developing cancer than actively using snus.
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This is a Snus vending machine within a Swedish grocery store, I took the picture last week. Good that they are smoke-free, but they are not at all nicotine-free
Good that they are smoke-free, but they are not at all nicotine-free
Yep, and what’s wrong with that? If adults want to take a substance, especially one that has significantly fewer health risks than many other legal substances, who am I to stop them?
And what’s the difference between tobacco-free snus and products that have been approved as “smoking cessation products” for so many years? Absolutely nothing, and you can buy them OTC, just usually a bit more expensive than nicotine pouches.
If countries truly cared about their citizens health, they’d be banning much more dangerous substances instead of nicotine pouches.
There are nicotine pouches that’s not currently banned in all EU counties which is the same thing for all practical purposes. I believe France banned them in February though.
However, there’s a discussion on the effectiveness on those pouches as a means of quitting cigarettes , since the reduction in smoking by women (who traditionally don’t use snus) seems to have happened before the nicotine pouches were introduced.
Thank you and @humanius@lemmy.world for the context. It still is a great achievement to have less people smoking normal ciggies.
I bet if I went over there and lit something on fire, there’d still be smoke.
Well yeah and that smoke would be free there.
The smoke is free only because you set it free by starting a fire.
Hmm, good point.
So tobacco only. I’m curious about the weed.
It’s hard to say, it’s a taboo subject. There’s probably a lot more people who do it than you’d expect, but probably not more than how many tobacco smokers. Though a large amount of young people have probably tried it.
Fun fact: Sweden was forced to allow EU-approved hemp (THC less than 0.3%)… but the second it becomes a “preparation”, it becomes a crime. Aa such, CBD oil from legal hemp is often illegal, because it can contain trace amounts of THC in it, despite manufacturers saying it’s 0%. And if you for example make tea from the hemp, or smoke it, it’s also a crime… but it’s completely legal before that point!
Illegal in Sweden and not very common, although not unheard of.
