Tobacco regulation in Sweden should take more heed of the public health benefits of snus, Patrik Hildingsson, the communications director of Swedish Match, has argued in an opinion piece in Sweden’s Göteborgs-Posten newspaper. 

He notes that as long ago as 2005, The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare concluded that snus benefitted public health. 

But the government continues to send the signal that it doesn’t matter if you smoke or use snus, that one form of tobacco is as dangerous as another. 

With Sweden currently the EU country with the lowest rate of tobacco-related disease, this communication failure could end up being a historic mistake, Hildingsson wrote. 

Snus benefits public health

Snus is not the same as cigarettes, and should not be regulated in the same way. 

A ban on displaying snus in shops would be more expensive for retailers, more cumbersome for the consumer, and make healthy competition impossible.

Read Patrik Hildingsson’s article (in Swedish) here.