Link: https://www.thelocal.com/20260525/incredible-milestone-reached-as-sweden-becomes-a-smoke-free-country

Archive: [ https://archive.is/OTfZe ]

The United States should ban cigarettes, but should continue to allow tobacco to be used in smoke-free forms.

If you want to poison yourself, that should be your choice, but poisoning others should not be allowed.

Fantastic. About 75% of the people I know still smokes though. Paywall stops me from reading the article but I do wonder what the sample size is.

Yeah as the article notes people have switched to nicotine pouches to get their fix. Which are better because they don't produce smoke and lung cancer, but they can still give you other oral cancers and dental diseases. If anything they're probably worse in that aspect due to being constantly pressed against the gums and lips. But at least they're smokeless.

In countries with solidary health insurance expenses to cover unnecessary, tobacco related cancers are paid by the whole population.

using Reader Mode in Firefox does work.

At least with vaping you can taper off the nicotine.

https://www.healthline.com/health/quit-smoking/does-zyn-cause-mouth-cancer#other-risks-and-side-effects

More research is needed. Nicotine on its own is not cancerous. Tobacco is. Nicotine pouches that aren't tobacco might carry much lower risks, but there is other stuff in them.

That happens in the US too. We just also pay CEO salaries and shareholder disbursements.

The only known negatives with nicotine is that it's apparently a bit stressful for the heart. So it's still good to avoid taking it, but if you're going to take nicotine anyways, it's the safest delivery method.

Do other countries also have an ingredients list on nicotine pouches? Sweden has always had it (even on snus), as it's classified as a food product. I've always found it interesting that a product that shouldn't be swallowed has an ingredients list, but products that "should" be swallowed (such as alcohol) doesn't.

Vaping is very possibly much less unhealthy than chewing tobacco, but of course we don't have long term studies yet

People just need to rediscover pipes. Tolkien knew what was up 👍

Nicotine pouches isn't chewing tobacco. Chewing tobacco is one of the most unhealthiest ways to consume nicotine.

I'm pretty sure i got the whole article:

Sweden has reached its target of fewer than five percent of the population smoking regularly – and is consequently considered "smoke-free".

"It is an incredible development that a harmful behaviour can be reduced to this extent," Mats Ramstedt, head of research at the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN), told the TT news agency.

For the first time in CAN's surveys, fewer than five percent smoke regularly in Sweden, according to the 2025 annual report on smoking and snus habits, which means that the political goal for Sweden to be smoke-free by 2025 has been achieved.

The proportion of daily smokers dropped from 16 to 4.8 percent between 2003 and 2025, according to the new report.

"It is not just the proportion of smokers that has decreased; we also see that people are smoking fewer cigarettes. Given the health risks associated with cigarette smoking, this is obviously very positive," said Ramstedt.

Smoking has been declining in Sweden since the late 1970s (for comparison: in the early 1980s, over 30 percent of Swedes smoked daily), thanks to broad preventative work, according to Ramstedt.

"The first and perhaps most vital point is that accessibility has been drastically reduced. It is both harder and more expensive to smoke today," said Ramstedt, citing taxes and real-term prices rising by 45 percent since 2003.

FROM THE LOCAL'S ARCHIVE: How Sweden is close to stubbing out smoking for good

He also credited efforts made to deter people from starting to smoke in the first place, such as advertising bans, and to make it easier for people to quit.

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.

"One must keep in mind that smoking had already decreased sharply before we saw this rise in snus. In a way, that argues against it being a decisive factor in reducing smoking," said Ramstedt, but conceded that more research into its role could provide useful insights. "My assessment is that there is a lack of studies proving this, and I would maintain that it is primarily down to preventative measures."

I love my pipe. Much more enjoyable experience.

I don't think the US has strict regulations on the ingredients... I don't know why, likely lobbyist behavior, but also I think people just accept that if you smoke you don't give a shit and it's unhealthy by default, so it's not a big deal if they add chemicals.

Which becomes more ridiculous with nicotine pouches for this reason. Nicotine isn't cancerous, so it would be super shitty to add carcinogens in the pouches and then claim it's a tobacco product so you should expect it.

We're such a generous nation ❤️

/s

I haven’t smoked in a long time, but I used to love my pipe. It’s been getting more and more tempting to try it again, since I have one of the few health issues where nicotine can sometimes help.

Thank you. Looks like they ask 18 000 people at random yearly. Quite a good sample size for a country of 10 million citizens. But I'd take it with a scoop of salt as it's self reported and other numbers are weirdly worded if not wrong.
I recall cigarettes being 38 SEK for a pack in 2008. Now they're 78 SEK, which is far more than +45% and in a shorter time span.

Edit: found the summary. 30% are still using nicotine, allegedly.

It's the whole coronary system not just the heart. It also comes with the same swath of possible symptoms as most stimulants including high blood pressure, stress/anxiety, etc.

That said, IMO the biggest issue is the litter. Used pouches should go into the trash can and away from animals.

And health care for Israel

Because every throat and lung cancer is caused by tobacco, we should make everyone who gets them go bankrupt and die? I'm really confused dude. What cancers are necessary.

s/unnecessary/avoidable/

Not to mention the littering problem is even worse than with cigarette butts.

It is actually basic and contains xylitol which is good for oral health. No link has been found to oral cancer. I don't understand where you get those facts from?

The United States should ban cigarettes

Never read about the Prohibition?

Oh, so my initial assumption was correct, it's whichever ones you personally feel like blaming the patient for getting. I take it the worst thing that's ever happens to you is stubbing your toe and you're a trust attorney?

smoker detected lol

it's somewhat nice to not risk fires breaking out, though.

well you are putting it in your mouth, so you're effectively swallowing parts of it.

Anecdotally i'd say it's probably more like 10%, however i think at this point smoking is so unusual that you REALLY notice if even a single person does it near you, which inflates how high the usage feels.

You're so dumb it's funny.

I know nothing of pipes other than shape. What is the functional advantages to it?

Yet they attack France for banning nicotine pouches and calling it an attack on the Swedish way of life.

Dead wrong.
The whole population benefits from what smokers pay.
From a study in NL it shows that they generate far more than what it costs in healthcare.
And it also said should the small percentage of smokers suddenly quit and live longer, the loss of income for the state and the extra cost of them living longer and needing more care would be unsustainable.

And if you want to be selfish and not have solidarity then let's start about the much bigger cost of the SELF-INFLICTED diabetic epidemic.
They require an avg of 28 years of aid.
And almost no country wants to tackle that because of their opportunistic politicians.
Who cares about antagonizing a small percentage that smokes.
But the many sugar addicts poisoning themselves are too important for their precious votes to touch.
And those same hypocrite politicians can be seen regularly with a glass of alcohol (hard drugs) in their hand.
And as an edit, I don't want to pay for your skin cancer treatment also, should've stayed out of the sun.

Pipe smoke smell is way worse than cigarretes. Old prof used to smoke pipe in his office... Stench is worse than tobacco bars and cig smoking offices +20 years later.

No, my nephew had cancer when he was six months. Anyone who is rooting for cancer deserves to die of it.

I mixed my own liquid so I was able to go down to 4, 3, 2, 1, then 0.75, 0.5, down to like 0.25 and lower I think

I was such a fiend that lowering the nicotine meant I would just hit it harder and more often for longer lol but once you get sub 1mg you literally cant hit it fast enough to feel satisfied even if you spend hours chain vaping 🤣

I also had a RDA that put out massive clouds though so that didnt help with moderation lol

My country is fentanyl-free. Less than 5% of the population consumes it.

That said, congrats on Sweden.

Do you mind showing me where I was rooting for cancer?

If they follow the rest of the EU and start banning flavored snus in favor of only menthol flavors you can expect to see a sharp spike in cigarette usage again. It's funny this study doesn't mention vapes, which, anecdotally, are massively popular in Sweden.

I think it’s “smoother” but I’ve never smoked one so I cannot confirm

That inspired me to look up my own country's rate of smoking over the years and I'm shocked that we're over 10% still, and were at 20% in 09. I know everything used to stink of cigarettes all the time, but that still feels so high

You're just saying that treating tobacco-related cancer is paid for by the whole population. That's it folks! If anyone is inferring something from that, well, that's clearly on them.

Edit: saw the deleted reply

In my very subjective opinion they taste better and are more fun.

Well, the pouches do not produce smoke is a plus, but it's disgusting. They spit them out during meetings to replace immediately with a new. They are in wastbaskets, on the street. Gross. For what i understood from dentist & doctors (standard question: do you drink, smoke, snuss) it's much worse than smoking. For the user that is, not their environment

archive link

wait how does that add up? why and how would smokers contribute more?

your second argument about healthy people living longer and therefore costing more (BC of receiving more pension is the argument I guess?) would apply to any treatment, including obesity, right?

'Smoke free contry'

It's about cigarettes

Bruh