Today Considerate Pouchers a consumer advocacy group for Pouchers held a Fika event at the Swedish Parliament. The event aimed to raise awareness of the fact that Sweden is extremely close to achieving Smoke Free status whereby less than 5% of the population smokes.
How has Sweden achieved this? By its population using reduced risk nicotine products such as Snus, Nicotine Pouches and Vaping instead of smoking. Snus and Nicotine Pouches have long been part of Swedish culture, just like Fika, which is the term used to describe taking a coffee break often with pastries.
So what better than combine the two and take the opportunity to talk to Swedish Policymakers about the role pouch’s have played in reducing smoking rates in Sweden.
Carissa During who heads up the Swedish arm of Considerate Pouchers said “The Swedish story is fairly unique in a world where 1.1 billion people still smoke, we have perhaps by accident taken a different path in Sweden. We are extremely close to reaching the smoke free target of 5% which the EU has set all member states to try and achieve by 2035. Yet Sweden has almost achieved this 12 years early. The EU and the rest of the world should consider Sweden as a blueprint for how you can vastly reduce the harms caused by smoking by helping people switch to safer nicotine products”
Frustratingly other EU states are currently doing the exact opposite of following the Swedish model and helping smokers switch. Belgium and Holland have both practically banned the use of nicotine pouches and Finland is considering similar moves. This is all on top of the fact that the EU banned the sale of Swedish Snus in the 1990’s and with it consigned hundreds of thousands of citizens to an early grave.
Read the article here
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