The first question that the readers will ask is - What is Swedish snus? It is a nicotine product but unlike cigars or cigarettes, never produces smoke during consumption.
In 1992, the European Union banned “all types of tobacco containing products” if they were meant to be chewed or smoked. That means all types of smokeless tobacco stuffs are allowed to be sold across the EU, with Swedish snus being the only exception.
To know about snus ban, one must need to go back to the United Kingdom in the 1980s when an American moist snuff manufacturer built up a factory in Scotland. They manufactured products in pouches – similar to Swedish snus – and were alleged of selling those to teenagers. It led to a massive public protest and finally resulted into a ban on snus throughout Ireland.
To avoid conflicts in internal market, the European Union, in 1992, decided to follow the steps taken by Ireland. Surprisingly, the decision was not made on the basis of any scientific data. However, no member country participated in the discussion because at that time, snus was not used widely outside Scandinavia.
Sweden became a member country of the EU in 1995. However, considering 200-year old tradition and extensive use of snus in Sweden, it was exempted from snus ban. In fact, it is said that Sweden would not have entered the European Union with a ban on snus.
Swedish Paradox
The risk of cancers caused by tobacco-related products, such as oral cancer or lung cancer, is considerably lower in Sweden compared to any other country in the EU in spite of the fact that Swedish people use as much tobacco as people in other countries across Europe.
The only difference is most of the Swedish men consume tobacco in form of snus instead of cigarettes. This trend is now also followed by Swedish women. At present, daily smokers are now only 9% of adult men. Compare the figure with 32% which is the average proportion of smokers across EU while snus is used by only 19% of Swedish men.
This is a paradox and better known as Swedish experience in the world of science. Several oncologists and cancer researchers are of the view that as smoking is less prevalent in Sweden, so it is partly responsible for use of snus in the country.
The EU has taken a strict step with snus ban but unfortunately, cigarette, despite being more harmful, is allowed to be manufactured and marketed.
Author’s Bio: Ron William works in a reputed snus manufacturing company. He is also a passionate blogger. In this article, he has discussed about snus ban in brief. To know more, you may visit snuscentral.org or contact him at …. or on.