Another World Tobacco Day, a date set by the World Health Organisation which aims to raise awareness about the global health risks associated with smoking, passes by with little changes in the state of the smoking epidemic in Europe. Both consumers and Members of the European Parliament are urging the European Union (EU) to take action and follow Sweden’s successful smoking-cessation strategy. The EU has so far failed to implement an effective approach to combat smoking rates while Sweden, the only country in the world about to become smoke-free, is gaining huge attention for its remarkable achievements.

The EU, together with many other countries around the globe, is pursuing a counterproductive strategy to combat the smoking epidemic. Its approach has been that of making alternative products seem as harmful as tobacco, restricting access to them and increasing taxation to make them more expensive and discourage their use. And that strategy is yielding rather disappointing results.

Despite all the efforts made by the European institutions, the overall smoking rate in the EU still stands at 25%, and around 700,000 people die due to smoking-related illnesses every year. But rather than changing its approach, the EU plans to intensify its crackdown on alternative nicotine products, including higher taxation on vaping and flavour bans. Moreover, the idea of legalising snus remains absent, despite the fact that the only country exempt from the ban, Sweden, is the most successful in the fight against smoking thanks to the switch in smokers from tobacco to this less harmful alternative.

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