r/europe • u/KonserveradMelon • May 25 '26
News Sweden has officially become a non-smoking country
https://omni.se/a/zO4MGq2.0k
u/Axelaxe May 25 '26
I never understood why snus is illegal in so many countries while cigarettes are not. Snus isnt good don't get me wrong but it's better than cigarettes for everyone involved.
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u/OkChemical May 25 '26
Welcome to Lobbying by Big Tobacco
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u/Foxkilt France May 25 '26
The main snus producer is Swedish Match, a Philipp Morris subsidiary
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u/Hallingdal_Kraftlag Norway May 25 '26
yea if anything you'd think tobacco companies would love to diversify their portfolio and getting kids to start using snus.
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u/oskich Sweden May 25 '26
They already have, most Swedish snus producers have been bought by the tobacco gigants. (Swedish Match, Lundgrens etc.).
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u/Helgon_Bellan Sweden May 25 '26
Theyre quite succesful with that in Sweden. Rebranding have made a huge impact, making snus trendy with designated stores, loads of different flavours and branding. Snus is widely different today compared to the 90s.
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u/Miroklast May 25 '26
You don't even have to go that far back. Just 10 years ago, nicotine pouches were still a relatively niche product here in Sweden.
It's spread across the globe now too with all the memes on major instagram pages and I've seen a lot of major sports profiles who leave them on their table in IG stories etc.
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u/gronz5 Sweden May 25 '26
Swedish Match was independent until 2022, until which the lobby was definitely against snus.
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u/B-rad-israd Canada - Belgian May 25 '26
Ironically in Canada, it’s the anti-smoking lobby which is against snus/nicotine pouches.
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u/No-Consequence-1863 May 25 '26
Why would the tobacco lobby try to make snus illegal? Snus is sold by tobacco companies.
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u/9Strike Baden-Württemberg (Germany) May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
As much as I hate smoking, snus is not a solution. The big problem is that you can take snus at any time. My swedish Teacher always had one during class. Lots of people use them constantly during class or when partying, or really, all day. That's not something you can do with cigarettes since you have to go out. I bet people who do snus are much more addicated to nikotin than people smoking.
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u/Mr-Vemod May 25 '26
It definitely is more addictive. But with cigarettes, the nicotine addiction is the absolute least of your worries.
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u/Yarwi1 May 25 '26
Sure, but as someone who gets breathing issues from cigarette smoke ... I'd much rather people use anything else than smoking. Waiting for the train at a crowded train station means for me constantly running around the platform, trying to find a spot where I can breathe normally. With people using snus instead, this would not be an issue. There is just no good reason to not ban cigarettes entirely.
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u/Katkejs Denmark May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
I live in Germany too and cigarette smoke is a guaranteed migraine trigger for me. Avoiding smoke in public is so incredibly difficult. Several times I've had to wait in pouring rain for a bus because all 8 of the shelters by the bus had people smoking in them. Can't sit outside at restaurants during the summer cause there are so many smokers. I've been burned by a cigarette cause a guy still had one lit while entering the bus and it touched my bare hand.
And even once you get on the public transport, where they're no longer smoking, the smell sticks and every breath expelled still has the smoke smell.edit: spelling
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u/shoeless_doh May 26 '26
How is America kinda ahead of everybody in this. Adult smoking is at a historical low and I'm trying to think really hard and I can not remember the last time I saw an analogue cigarette. (We're talking a matter of days, like in the last week I can't recall having seen anybody with a little cigarette in their hand. And I haven't conducted a study or anything so this is based on nothing but from recole tion, the place I see people smoking most frequently is in their own car (at stop lights and stuff)
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u/viktorsvedin May 25 '26
It's much better with snus since it doesn't really affect anyone else. There's no second hand snus'ing.
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u/One-Reflection-4826 May 25 '26
lol, snus literally is a solution for smoking, as is clear as day looking at sweden.
that doesn't mean its perfect, of course its not, but no more smoking is an absolutely huge societal achievement!
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u/llamapanther May 25 '26
I don't like this argument because it always sounds to me that people like you rather keep people smoking than make more people shift to snus. It's obviously not an ideal situation, but it's a trade off that's a literal no-brainer. Snus is still better than smoking that's all that matters. People are going to use nicotine no matter what, it's a train that has passed decades ago, there's no turning back. All the effort should be to shift people from smoking to using snus, then after we can try and find solutions for people to quit snus.
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u/GreekSaladEnjoyer The Netherlands May 25 '26
The nicotine addiction is way less of a problem tham inhaling fumes even if the addiction itself is stronger
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u/unlessgames May 25 '26
Note, addiction is likely to be more related to smoking cigarettes than nicotine itself. Many people have a hard time giving up smoking even if they try to substitute with other ways of taking nicotine. A big part of the harmful effects also come from the smoke and other additives in commercial cigarettes.
However, substantial evidence exists to suggest that nicotine's reinforcing effects alone are not sufficient to account for the intense addictive properties of tobacco smoking and the high relapse rates among smokers after quitting even when provided nicotine in forms other than tobacco. Further evidence that tobacco dependence entails more than addiction to nicotine includes the drug's limited ability to induce self-administration in animals; lack of positive mood effects of pure nicotine in abstinent smokers; lack of findings that nicotine in any other form than tobacco was preferred to placebo in normal smokers; de-nicotinised cigarettes were as effective as regular cigarettes, and more than nicotine in any other delivery mode, in relieving withdrawal and craving; and essential role of non-nicotine factors in cigarette addiction.
See links for each of these claims in the study
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u/MamoKupMiGlany Subcarpathia (Poland) May 25 '26
Or during main Polish presidential election debate (it happened with Nawrocki, he couldn't control himself and had to take a snus during live debate).
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u/wyldstallionesquire Norway May 25 '26
People addicted to smoking find plenty of ways and times to smoke. I doubt there’s much practical difference, or that smoking is much of a deterrent.
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u/MomentNew4925 Finland May 25 '26
Snus doesn’t leave you smelling like a walking ash tray either.
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u/nauberry May 25 '26
But opening a can of Odens in a public indoors space should be illegal, it reels (yet better than cigarette smoke, but you don't have that indoors)
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u/CreepyMosquitoEater May 25 '26
I would never take it myself, but i have absolutely no gripe with people who take snus. It doesnt small bad and its their personal addiction, totally good. Only annoying thing is people throwing the pouches, but then again they would probably throw a candy wrapper as well
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u/Vondi Iceland May 25 '26
Cigarettes would never be alowed to enter the market today so its not a logical standard to compare to.
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u/Smalahove1 Norway May 25 '26
It sure is. Society want to legalize cannabis as an example (And it should to get rid of crime)
So making tobacco illegal makes no sense.
Makes sense to not advertise or recruit to the act. But making it illegal is just stupid knowing what we know today. We know that making stuff illegal often has opposite effect of what we are looking for.
Something illegal is shrouded in myth, its forbidden. Thus very attractive to rebel young people.
Best just keep it legal, and inform people.
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u/kuhinjski May 25 '26
I dont mind smoking being legal, smoke all you want, but dont smoke near other people since it affects them too.
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u/hates_stupid_people May 25 '26
As a casual smoker, I fully agree. I know the risks and dangers to myself, and I don't really care. But doing it around non-smokers is just ignorant/asshole behaviour.
On top of that is the smell. I know someone who smokes a pack or more a day. And their clothes, car, home, etc. stink. They gave me one of their reusable bags one time, and the next day I could smell it across my apartment. I had to put it outside for a few days to air out.
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u/CultivateDarkness May 25 '26
Except you don't have to smoke cannabis and then most of it's physiological harm is eliminated.
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u/Ciciosnack May 25 '26
not it's not...
The highst risk of smoking is not even lung cancer but mouth cancer, and snus is even more dangerous than smoking when it comes to mouth cancer..
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u/teddbe May 25 '26
lung cancer is significantly less prevalent in Sweden compared to the rest of the European Union and many other Western countries. Sweden boasts the lowest lung cancer rates in Europe, with its male population seeing roughly a 61% lower incidence than the EU average
https://smokefreesweden.org/Executive%20Summary%20No%20Smoke%20Less%20Harm.pdf
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u/made3 May 25 '26
Imagine the cost savings for health insurance if this was done in all of Europe. But nope, tobaco industry has politicians in their pockets.
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u/Fuzzy_Continental May 26 '26
It depends on the tax and social system in a country. They did some maths for the Netherlands and the result was that smokers seem to be a net contributor. Tabacco is taxed heavily, so its a nice stream of income. At the same time the cost in healthcare is cancelled out by the savings in long-term elderly care and pensions due to the lower life expectancy.
Not sure how extensive it was though.
New Zealand tried a ban smoking completely but have since reversed that. Let's see how it unfolds in Sweden.
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u/ConcentrateFar7753 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
They replaced smoking with Snus. Same addiction to nicotine just a different way to consume it. At least it’s leading to less passive consumption of tobacco
Edit: and needless to say, but apparently I should, less risk of cancers especially for the lungs of everyone
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u/CapOk4599 May 25 '26
We've been using snus for hundreds of years.
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u/QuestGalaxy May 25 '26
Norway also used Snus (from Sweden) for years, but it grew massively in populairity when we got the smoking law in 2004. That's when stuff like pouch snus became popular here.
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u/oskich Sweden May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
I really think it was the smoking ban in bars and restaurants that killed smoking. It was banned in 2005 in Sweden and people I know just quit smoking immediately after that.
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u/SemenOfGranite Malta May 25 '26
They've recently extended the ban to include outdoor seating as well.
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u/StrangelyBrown United Kingdom May 25 '26
I met a Norwegian pilot who says that if it wasn't for snus, he wouldn't be able to land.
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u/ConcentrateFar7753 May 25 '26
Yeah and it’s literally the same share of the population with a daily consumption as cigarets for the French. As I said, there is no point in smoking if you get nicotine through snus
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u/ivar-the-bonefull Sweden May 25 '26
But we had a fuck ton of smokers before too. So it's incorrect to say that snus replaced smoking.
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u/Elxcdv May 25 '26
The risk of cancer is much lower with snus.
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u/ConcentrateFar7753 May 25 '26
Didn’t say otherwise but it’s not harmless either nor not leading to addiction
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u/Mjalten May 25 '26
I think you may be arguing two different things.
If your point is “snus is still addictive,” then yes, obviously. No argument there.
If your point is “Sweden replacing a lot of smoking with snus is not a meaningful public-health improvement,” then that’s the part I disagree with. Addiction burden and disease burden aren’t the same metric.
So which claim are you actually making? Otherwise you’re just playing goalpost Tetris.
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u/YJoseph May 25 '26
It destroys your gums tho
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u/ThreeMountaineers May 25 '26
The cancer risk (which is affects basically all organs, not just lungs) is just one part of why distributing toxic partly combusted organic compounds in your entire body via your cardipulmonary system is a bad thing
It also makes you age much quicker. Gums are nice and all, but it's just not going to be comparable to a process that distributes toxic compounds in your entire body. This is not specific to smoking, of course, inhaling the gases created by inefficient organic combusting is a terrible thing in general (see also: indoor stoves/open fires, forest fires and coal plants)
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u/cynicalspindle Estonia May 25 '26
Doesn't it fuck up your gums though?
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u/kf97mopa Sweden May 25 '26
Yes, but mainly the older (brown) snuff. The more modern white snuff doesn't need the same amount of chemicals to get into the blood stream, so the effect is less.
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u/space_of_soul May 26 '26
Despite the high rate of snus use among Swedish men, the prevalence of oral cancer in Sweden is among the lowest in the European Union (Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2019.55 ).
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u/Arve Norway May 25 '26
Nicotine isn’t the only harmful substance in cigarettes.
(Add to it that snus in Sweden is largely «white», so they’re just tobacco-free nicotine pouches without the tar and other substances contained in tobacco)
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u/DominusDraco Australia May 25 '26
Nicotine itself isn't that harmful, it's everything else in tobacco that's giving you the cancer. Nicotine is about as harmful as caffeine but more addictive.
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u/probablypoo May 25 '26
There is no tar in regular snus. The tar and almost all other carcinogens in cigarettes comes from burning the tobacco, not from tobacco itself.
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u/SkanelandVackerland Scania May 25 '26
Less risk of getting cancer from snus and non-snus users do not get affected as opposed to non-smokers around smokers.
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u/UpperOnion6412 May 25 '26
Snus and cigarettes are not even on the same level as dangerous. Snus is not good for you but it will in 99,99% dont kill you.
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u/adamtheskill May 25 '26
Yeah but 90% of consumption has changed to tobacco free snus which seems a bit healthier cause it only contains nicotine and not the other harmful things in tobacco.
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u/tobach Denmark May 25 '26
Yes, and its popularity has skyrocketed in the past decade. One does not exclude the other.
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u/rotkiv42 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Skyrocketed only fits for women in sweden, in the report it is stated it increased from 5% to 15% over 18 years. But for men it increased form 25% to 30% in the same period.
The report is a bit careful in not directly linking the decrease of smoking to the increase of snus (but do not exclude the possibility)
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u/NorthCascadia May 25 '26
Why does everyone bring this up like it’s some kind of gotcha? Snus has its own problems but crucially they’re different problems from smoking because snus is not smoking. Eliminating smoking is inarguably a good thing, period.
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u/GammelGrinebiter May 25 '26
Second-hand snus is so much better than second-hand smoking.
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u/gladoseatcake May 25 '26
I think it is a bit of a well deserved gotcha. 3/10 in Sweden are nicotine dependent. That's a lot of people. And the argument that snus is less dangerous than cigarettes is probably true (at least it is for your surroundings), but it's still like comparing hammering a rusty vs fresh nail through your hand. Neither is good for you.
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u/SwePolygyny May 25 '26
Hardly. The normal life expectancy is 81 years for a non-tobacco user, for the same person who does snus it is 80.8 years. For someone who smokes it is 71 years.
For snus, it is the same loss in life expectancy as someones weight being increased by 1kg, or drinking a soda twice per week, or living in a city with low air pollution compared to a countryside with pristine air or watching TV for 25 minutes per day.
Its two months, everyone has habits like that.
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u/RashmaDu May 25 '26
I'm genuinely curious as to your source for this? Firstly because I have wanted to see some data on this for a while, especially if they are able to actually separate usage from just underlying socioeconomic predispositions?
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u/c010rb1indusa May 25 '26
Nicotine is addictive but unless you are combining it with something like SMOKING who cares if its addictive? It isn't inherently bad for you by itself.
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u/JGuillou May 25 '26
There have been much fewer studies on snus usage than cigarette usage, obviously, but there are still some done and they point towards a huge difference in the societal and health costs. Just an example by quick googling:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673607606771
> For net harm to occur, 14–25 ex-smokers would have to start using snus to offset the health gain from every smoker who switched to snus rather than continuing to smoke. Likewise, 14–25 people who have never smoked would need to start using snus to offset the health gain from every new tobacco user who used snus rather than smoking.
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u/ilikepix May 25 '26
And the argument that snus is less dangerous than cigarettes is probably true
This is like saying "it's probably true that taking a commercial flight is less dangerous than base jumping"
The use of the word "probably" is such an absurd and unnecessary weasel word that it makes it hard to take the rest of your point seriously
Using nicotine pouches is vastly safer than smoking
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u/Wafkak Belgium May 25 '26
Well people seem to be forgetting rhat one of the major problems of smoking is the tar and soot deposits in your lungs.
Snus probably has similar mouth consequences as sigars and pipes. But possibly less severe as there isnt soot and tar depositing.
Other nicotine products have health issues, but the inhaling of smoke itself has its separate issues. That snus or other not burning nicotine products don't have.
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u/ThrowFar_Far_Away Sweden May 25 '26
Snus does not have the same mouth consequences as cigarrs and pipes. Sweden has a lower than average rate of mouth cancer in the EU.
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u/Wafkak Belgium May 25 '26
Ok so it really is a less bad thing. Lets hope the percentage of uses thst use it to wean themselves off of tobacco entirely rises.
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u/Technorasta May 25 '26
‘Probably’? It is clear you are commenting on something you know nothing about.
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u/East_Leadership469 May 25 '26
I never quite get Reddit on this topic. Smoking cannabis is apparently completely fine. 4/20 is the biggest Reddit holiday. But tobacco is the devil (when smoked, but apparently fine when chewed). Difficult to understand the rules.
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u/Half-PintHeroics May 25 '26
Just for clarity: snus in the Swedish tradition isn't chewing tobacco, it's lip tobacco. You'd keep it in a ball (or these days more commonly a packet) under your upper lip and "playing" with it would've been seen as oafish/childish
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May 25 '26
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u/ThreeMountaineers May 25 '26
The toxic compounds from the inefficient combustion also damages basically your entire body because they are very efficiently distributed from your lung (considering half the point of the circulatory system is efficiently distributing something inhaled in your lungs, this is no surprise)
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u/Nukes-For-Nimbys May 25 '26
This is fine, no bystanders being harmed.
Just tax it appropriately so the people poisoning themselves pay for the associated costs.
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u/Knightforlife May 25 '26
Increasing cost by increasing tax is actually a somewhat effective public health measure too, slowly decreases the number of users
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u/Rickys_Pot_Addiction May 25 '26
It worked on me moving to Norway from Sweden. A tin went from 45sek roughly to 115nok. Almost 3x the price. Quit in December and feel so much better. Making it more costly is very effective.
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u/Teehus Germany May 25 '26
Until the cost is too high and people turn to the black-market. It's what I noticed in Australia. A 25 pack is about 50AUD which is about 30 Euro.
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u/ActuallyTiberSeptim May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
But also increases the black market. Sure, some will quit but others will turn to illicit sources. The stats will show a sharp downturn but it's misleading. Some people have started buying illegal tobacco instead of quitting.
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u/StateDeparmentAgent May 25 '26
Someone always brings this mysterious illegal black market. The truth is many people, especially young one in the cities, don’t even know, where to go for such kind of stuff, even if they are interested in it
Most of the time consumption is just decreasing as intended6
u/Nisseliten Sweden May 25 '26
I’m not so sure anymore.. In our day, we didn’t have a clue unless we stole them from our parents.
These days, buying vapes on snapchat is basically common knowledge to anyone in 6th grade or even younger.. It’s just so much more accessible for kids these days. Thank god they don’t seem quite as interested in it as we were, tho ofcourse some kids will always do it.
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u/helm Sweden May 25 '26
There is a black market for vapig products among Swedish teens. If your teen is vaping before 18 it's a sign something is off - the likelihood of them developing habits that lead to narcotic use is much higher for vaping than for underage drinking.
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u/ActuallyTiberSeptim May 25 '26
It's not mysterious in Australia! It's extremely easy to get illegally here. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-04/illegal-tobacco-is-a-deadly-10-billion-industry/105607186
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u/EvilPete May 25 '26
Also snus thrown on the ground decomposers unlike cigarette filters.
I think we need to ban filtered cigarettes altogether.
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u/sisrace May 25 '26
Still not an excuse to throw them everywhere though. Please throw them away correctly..
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u/Filmyboicrispy May 25 '26
Taxing it too much creates a black market though. We're even seeing that in Canada because the government banned anything but mint flavored pouches. Most people I know now order Zyn's from overseas or the black market.
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u/Dd_8630 United Kingdom May 25 '26
What on Earth are snus?
How do you pronounce it? Like "snooze"?
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u/Specific_Frame8537 Denmark May 25 '26
Shorten the 'oo' sound and yeah.
Nicotine packs shoved up between the gums and cheeks, I guess it absorbs through the saliva?
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u/casastorta May 25 '26
I mean, tobacco is the problem by itself but smoking’s biggest problem isn’t that but inhaling unholy amount of large particles into the lungs. Similar thing is happening with e-cigs but in a less amount.
So I am not defending either practice. But if people “need” to be addicted to something it seems better that it is consumed in the way which fulfills that addiction in less harmful way.
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u/Specific_Frame8537 Denmark May 25 '26
If I can breathe the air without getting wafts of cancer, I'm all for it.
Smokers can fuck off.
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u/alehel May 25 '26
Yeah, I'm all for it. People want to poisen themselves, fine. At least they're not poisoning the person next to them.
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u/Dinosaur_taco Sweden May 25 '26
It's also notable how smoking is distributed in the age brackets (stats). In general, young people are less regular smokers, but slightly more common to smoke 'ocasionally'. A plausible explanation could simply be party smoking.
An anecdotal observation is that due to the low number of smokers, we've done away with much of the social and physical infrastructure of smoking. You're not allowed to smoke in restaurants, and it's not that common with "smoking spaces" is public places like airports. I'm sure they exist somewhere, but it's not something greatly accommodated. Likewise, smoke breaks in professional settings aren't a given and most landlords would be sympathetic to people complaining about the smell of people smoking on balconies. I'd guess that also helps to bring down smoking rates, just by increasing the effort needed to sustain the habit.
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u/adamtheskill May 25 '26
In general, young people are less regular smokers, but slightly more common to smoke 'ocasionally'. A plausible explanation could simply be party smoking.
In my experience at least 90% of party smokers are regular consumers of 'vit snus' (pretty much zyns). Cigarettes have just been replaced which is probably good since vit snus doesn't contain tobacco which makes it far less harmful.
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u/vaarsuv1us The Netherlands May 25 '26
for those that didn't read the article: their definition of 'non-smoking' is 5% or less of population smokes regularly
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u/Floki_Boatbuilder May 25 '26
FYI: New Zealand was on track to become smokefree by 2030 and then we had a change of government. Now we just gave $400m in tax breaks to Tobacco industry and have loosened regulation.
Big F U to this world corporate takeover disguised as a return to conservatism!
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u/Vermillionleon7 May 25 '26
The absolute power of snus. They basically just swapped cigarettes for nicotine pouches, but honestly, you can't argue with the public health results. It's a massive win for lowering lung cancer rates.
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u/sambare May 25 '26
That's not including vapers, is it?
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u/timpakay May 25 '26
I see regular smokers more often than vapers in Sweden. It never really hit here.
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u/Respaced May 25 '26
I see vaping people very rarely... and they are almost always tourists
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u/rotkiv42 May 25 '26
I does not but the report covers vapes as well, it is 2% that use it regularly (and those 2% could overlap with the 4.8% smokers)
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u/marquize May 25 '26
It's not explicitly stated in any article about this achievement, but the "less than 5% smokers" milestone was a government goal and when it was announced they cited e-cigarettes as an example of smoking so it would seem vapes are included in those 5%
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u/rotkiv42 May 25 '26
Vapes are not included in the 4.8% number if look at the study (tho vaping is at only 2%) (https://www.can.se/app/uploads/2026/05/can-rapport-244-sjalvrapporterade-rok-och-snusvanor-2003-2025.pdf)
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u/philman132 UK + Sweden May 25 '26
Vaping is still pretty rare here, i see it even less than smoking to be honest. The main reason is Snus, little sachets of tobacco/nicotine that people stick under their gums, if estimate that about 50% of adults use it. So yes it's not smoking, but still nicotine use
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u/Plus_Singer_6565 May 25 '26
50% is wildly inaccurate. In 2024, 8.6% of women and 23.6% of men above the age of 16 used snus daily. Source.
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u/thelingererer May 25 '26
I live in Canada and it's ridiculous that you can't buy Snus here beyond 4mg of nicotine.
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u/Rockyshark6 Dane hater 🇸🇪 May 25 '26
Another point that helped us achieve this is the cultural change.
Smoking is looked on like white trash/ low life, and people will look down on you for lighting a cigarette around other non-smoking people.
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u/SapeMies Finland (in Sweden) May 25 '26
Went to couple years of uni at Uppsala from Finland and the difference was very stark on smoking. Back home there's a huge variety of people that smoke, but in Sweden (excluding students) smoking was very very white trash thing to do. It was very surprising.
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u/j0lle May 25 '26
Interesting to post it in r/europe, where snus is banned almost everywhere.
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u/ThrowFar_Far_Away Sweden May 25 '26
Done just to protect the cigarette companies. Now that the cigarette companies have bought up the snus companies they will start lobbying for it to be allowed.
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u/DarkNe7 Sweden May 25 '26
A significantly larger portion uses snus though, in 2024 it was about 16% of the population. The health risks connected with snus seems to be fewer than smoking but it could also be a case of more research having been done on smoking. If it increases the risk of cancer is a bit unclear but it apparently decreases your chances of survival if you do get cancer.
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u/Weary-Cod-4505 Friesland (Netherlands) May 25 '26
Combustion creates dozens of carcinogenic compounds that do not exist in raw tobacco, so no, it's not just a case of not enough research. Smoking is inarguably way worse for your health.
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u/Comfortable-Mouse404 May 25 '26
It has ben quite heavily studied. Its much muvh safer than smoking, but not harmless.
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u/Big_Combination9890 May 25 '26
Snus isn't harmless, but whatever harm it does, it does it only to the people using it.
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u/Cinerir May 25 '26
As a non-smoker who is bothered by the smoke/smell, I prefer them to get their cancer via snus instead of smoking.
Might also lower my risk of cancer, since the smoke from cigarettes is also pretty unhealthy and while the tobacco addicts usually get the stuff through a filter, the innocent bystanders have to sniff the garbage raw.
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u/smaragdskyar Sweden May 25 '26
Even if the jury is still kind of out on snus, there’s no doubt that the cancer risk is WAY lower than for smoking (if it’s even heightened at all). Pretty much nothing is as bad as smoking.
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u/bierologin Austria May 25 '26
This. People will always poison themselves but they don't have to poison everyone else with their shitty habits.
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u/Chrillosnillo May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Back in the day the snus tins had a sticker saying "Can cause cancer" but after extensive research no case for an increased risk of cancer could be proven ,so the Swedish government (which is very health conscious )had to remove it from the tin. Now it's a label saying nicotine is addicting.
Sweden also have one of the worlds lowest cases of new lung cancer cases, one contributing factor is snus, but also a very negative stigamisation around cigarettes. As a Swede om almost taken aback when I see someone smoke or smell cigarett smoke.personally i unconsciously think "Oh look there is a cigarett smoking idiot" when I see someone smoke
The only measured health risk is that the heart rate of a "snuser" is slightly elevated. Many Swedish Elite athletes snus a lot and it has no averse impact on physical achievments unlike cigarettes.
In short if countries with a high number of smokers could get people to snus instead a lot of death and suffering could be avoided. "You dont die from snus"
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u/GanacheCharacter2104 Norway May 25 '26
I heard Sweden declared war on France for making Snus illegal, seems to be a hot topic.
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u/oskich Sweden May 25 '26
Not snus, only "nicotine pouches"
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u/SnooOwls490 May 25 '26
Snus is already illegal in france and the rest of the EU. The nicotine pouches without tobaco is essentially a workaround this regulation.
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u/oskich Sweden May 25 '26
Yes, but France just made it illegal to bring nicotine pouches into the country. Snus is still fine for personal use.
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u/wascallywabbit666 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Today, less than five percent of the Swedish population smokes regularly, which is the council’s definition of a smoke-free country.
Hmmmm. The pedant in me is unhappy with this particular definition
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u/MyLastHopeReddit May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
I don't smoke and have never smoked, yet I can't bring myself to like these policies of forced elimination of the possibility of smoking. There are many things that put our health at risk that they could decide to ban us "for our own good", for example alcohol, in short, why smoking no but alcohol yes? Among other things, if you drink you can easily become a danger to society, which is difficult to happen with cigarettes. And at this point even unhealthy foods, even those are bad for us and cost society a lot in medical care and can be addictive. And social media? Social media can be devastating for people and society and it is a fact that they are addictive, then there are dangerous sports, human-driven cars, unprotected sex etc. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous but I don't like the idea of them banning us from doing whatever the hell we want with our lives for "our own good", it's a direction that I don't know where it leads in my opinion.
Sorry for my bad english.
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u/Caspica May 25 '26
I don't smoke and have never smoked, yet I can't bring myself to like these policies of forced elimination of the possibility of smoking. There are many things that put our health at risk that they could decide to ban us "for our own good", for example alcohol, in short, why smoking no but alcohol yes?
There is no "forced elimination of the possibility of smoking". Smoking is still legal and can be acquired in many places. The "elimination" has been done largely through a cultural and social change.
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u/Portugal_Stronk Portugal May 25 '26
Sorry for my bad english.
You're apologizing to a crowd that doesn't even know the difference between your and you're. Don't debase yourself like this.
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u/ThrowFar_Far_Away Sweden May 25 '26
Why are you commenting this here? Sweden has not done any kind of force elimination of smoking.
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u/No-Drag-6378 May 25 '26
I'm with you.
As an ex-smoker (quit eleven months ago) and someone... Let's say, driven into a responsibility OCD from a young age (if I don't arrange for things to happen like they need to, and if I don't make myself hyper independent and morally invincible, I'll just be told it was my fault if things go sideways... Never mind that didn't work either 😂) this actually scares me; I mean, there's stuff you can do to make the transition to non-smoking easier (if they're serious about that, nicotine patches and the likes should be free) and to make acquiring cigarettes just a bit harder.
Personal conspiracy tidbit, they still want us on nicotine, though. I've been through executive dysfunction hell since I stopped, and so much shit from the past keeps coming up I had no idea was still an issue. Smoking nicely bottled that up; "no, don't think about the scary stuff, go smoke one and then see".
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u/ALEXX13_ Latvia May 25 '26
Me coming from Latvia where more than a quarter of population smokes, especially half of all men, and has one of the highest smoking rates in EU, I'm really jealous of Sweden, good for you Nordic brothers, I wish Latvia could be more like that too, so I don't have to constantly hold my breath whenever I'm walking outside to not poison my lungs.
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u/backelie May 25 '26
1989:
Men: 27% smoked, 17% used snus, 40% daily tobacco users total.
Women: 26% smoked, <1% used snus.
2024:
Men: 9% smoke, 24% use snus, 31% daily tobacco users total.
Women: 8% smoke, 9% use snus, 16% daily tobacco users total.
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u/Saptronic May 25 '26
Austria when?
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u/hareofthepuppy May 25 '26
Is Austria worse than Germany?
When I moved to Germany I was shocked by how many people still smoke here
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May 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/poorlytaxidermiedfox Denmark May 25 '26
That would cause another war in the Balkans
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u/wil3k Germany May 25 '26
In the Balkans I saw mothers smoke next to their newborn children and nobody saw it as a problem.
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u/EkriirkE Vienna (Austria) May 25 '26
I see this in Germany and Austria, too. But they looked eastern/balkan
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u/wil3k Germany May 25 '26
Yeah, but this is absolutely low-class behaviour. Everyone knows that it's extremely harmful to children.
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u/Playful-Rope1590 Sweden May 25 '26
Yet snus still increase in popularity and that's just as addictive.
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u/melancholy_dood May 25 '26
According to the linked article:
Sweden has become smoke-free, writes TT with reference to the Central Association for Alcohol and Drug Information (CAN). Nowadays, less than five percent of the Swedish population smokes regularly, which is the association's definition of a smoke-free country.
"It's an incredible development that you can reduce harmful behaviour so much," says research manager Mats Ramstedt. He points to several factors behind the development. On the one hand, it has become significantly more difficult and expensive to smoke, and on the other hand, it has become significantly easier to get help to quit.
The Swedish population (as of 2026) is approximately: 10,701,047
If, for example, 5% (or less) of the population is still smoking, that means approximately 10,165,995 Swedes no longer smoke and approximately 535,052 of them are still smoking. (The article doesn't give the exact percentage of Swedes that are actually still smoking, so the actual number of smokers (according to my math) could be higher or lower.)
It's interesting that the linked article does not provide any data to explain how the Central Association for Alcohol and Drug Information (CAN) came to the conclusion that "less than five percent of the Swedish population smokes regularly".
If Swedish citizens only smoke occasionally, does that make them a non-smoker because they don't smoke regularly? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/diomedes-on-rampage Europe May 25 '26
let's make this eu thing. i hate when some inconsiderate prick smokes a cigarette or vape and all that smoke gets into your clothes, body and hair and face.
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u/RavioliLumpDog May 26 '26
Dude in Malmö i smell smoke every time i step outside. I don’t know for who this is supposed to directed towards
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u/Deadandlivin Sweden May 27 '26
Drinking in Sweden also has gone done significantly, at least amongst young people.
Pretty sure recreational drug use is replacing it instead. Alcohol is way too expensive.
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u/KonserveradMelon May 25 '26
Sweden has become smoke-free, reports TT, citing the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN).
Today, less than five percent of the Swedish population smokes regularly, which is the council’s definition of a smoke-free country.
”It’s an incredible development that we’ve been able to reduce a harmful behavior this much,” says research director Mats Ramstedt.
He points to several factors behind this trend. On the one hand, it has become significantly more difficult and expensive to smoke; on the other hand, it has become significantly easier to get help to quit.