Since it was patented last year, Bengt Wiberg’s sting-free snus pouch has not only garnered the interest of international snus manufacturers, it has also made him a tobacco harm reduction celebrity. His #EUforsnus social media campaign has helped stimulate what he calls “a young snus revolution”, advancing the snus cause in both the EU and the US. Most scientists now agree that using Swedish snus is at least 95 per cent less harmful than smoking cigarettes. Sweden has the lowest tobacco-related mortality rate among males of any nation in the EU.

We start this week with the European Court of Injustice interim ruling playing fast and snus with smokers’ health as part of a rather long blog (sorry) on what the Rand Corporation call Truth Decay. More on that below. Anti-tobacco harm reductionists spend an awful lot of time claiming those who support tobacco harm reduction are simply the lackeys and stooges of Big Tobacco. But the truly insidious nature of morally driven (as opposed to health driven) tobacco control, is the degree to which those with the power to influence exploit the natural conservatism and caution of policymakers and legislators to deny access to a product with a clear public health benefit.

The uptake of snus in Norway is being credited with almost eliminating cigarette smoking among young people living there. In a note published on its website today, the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) said that government figures showed the incidence of smoking among women aged 16-24 was down from 30 percent in 2001 to 0.1 percent, while the incidence of smoking among young men was down from 29 percent to three percent.

Sweden’s moist smokeless tobacco snus, which is currently banned across Europe, is trying to find its way into the EU tobacco directive, with supporters pointing to evidence suggesting it is appropriate for the protection of public health.
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Anyone who reads this magazine and takes an interest in the vapor industry will be familiar with phrases like “more research needed” and “not enough evidence.” But when is enough evidence, enough evidence? I ask this because there is another product that has suffered from the “more research needed” mantra: snus. Despite extensive evidence that snus is harm reducing, it remains banned in the European Union. And as we listen to continued calls for more research on e-cigarettes and other alternative tobacco and nicotine products, these categories risk becoming another “snus.”
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“E-cigarettes are having a major impact, but they don’t work for everyone in all circumstances. We want to see wide availability of all safer nicotine products as alternatives to smoking.” - Professor Gerry Stimson, Chairperson, NNA
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The latest evidence was presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist. Snus researcher Lars Ramstrom in Sweden showed that if snus were made available in Europe - where it is currently banned with the exception of Sweden - then a lot many premature deaths could be avoided among men every year. While 46 percent of deaths due to smoking result from respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia, there is no evidence that risk of these diseases is increased by using snus.
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Washington: Here's another reason for you to quit smoking, as a study has warned that snus - a type of moist powdered tobacco, typically held in the mouth between the lips and gums- is 95 percent safer than smoking. With the potential to stop 320,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of the low risk tobacco product, snus, in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe.
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Washington: Here’s another reason for you to quit smoking, as a study has warned that snus – a type of moist powdered tobacco, typically held in the mouth between the lips and gums- is 95 percent safer than smoking. With the potential to stop 320,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of the low risk tobacco product, snus, in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe.
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Here’s another reason for you to quit smoking, as a study has warned that snus, a type of moist powdered tobacco, typically held in the mouth between the lips and gums, is 95 percent safer than smoking. With the potential to stop 3,20,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of snus in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe. The latest evidence was presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist.
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With the potential to stop 320,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of the low risk tobacco product, snus, in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe. The latest evidence was presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist. Snus researcher Lars Ramstrom in Sweden showed that if snus were made available in Europe - where it is currently banned with the exception of Sweden - then a lot many premature deaths could be avoided among men every year.
Download PDF

Here's another reason for you to quit smoking, as a study has warned that snus - a type of moist powdered tobacco, typically held in the mouth between the lips and gums- is 95 percent safer than smoking. With the potential to stop 320,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of the low risk tobacco product, snus, in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe.
Download PDF

With the potential to stop 320,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of the low risk tobacco product, snus, in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe.
Download PDF

ith the potential to stop 320,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of the low risk tobacco product, snus, in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe. The latest evidence was presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist. Snus researcher Lars Ramstrom in Sweden showed that if snus were made available in Europe - where it is currently banned with the exception of Sweden - then a lot many premature deaths could be avoided among men every year.
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Washington D.C. [USA], June 17 : Here's another reason for you to quit smoking, as a study has warned that snus - a type of moist powdered tobacco, typically held in the mouth between the lips and gums- is 95 percent safer than smoking. With the potential to stop 320,000 premature deaths across Europe each year, the researchers demonstrate the potential of the low risk tobacco product, snus, in reducing the impact of tobacco related disease and death in Europe. The latest evidence was presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist.
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Snus, a smokeless powdered tobacco, is some-more renouned than smoking in Sweden. Its accessibility has led to a rebate in smoking and smoking associated diseases with a 2017 EC EuroBarometer consult display usually 5% of Swedes being daily smokers compared with a European normal of 24%. Correspondingly, Swedish organisation have Europe’s lowest turn of tobacco-related mortality, 152 per 100,000 compared with a European normal of 373 per 100,000.
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Idag är snus förbjudet i alla länder i Europa förutom Sverige. Men ny statistik som presenteras denna vecka vid Global Forum on Nicotine i Polen tyder på att snus kan rädda liv, ett uppenbart argument för att legalisera snus i Europa enligt konsumentgrupper.
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New data analysis presented today at the annual Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) meeting demonstrates the potential of the low-risk tobacco product snus in reducing the impact of tobacco-related disease and death in Europe. The latest evidence, presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist and medical statistician, indicates that snus is at least 95% safer than smoking. Analysis by Lars Ramström, snus researcher in Sweden, shows that if snus were made available in Europe - where it is currently banned with the exception of Sweden - and similar use levels to Sweden were adopted, up to 320,000 premature deaths could be avoided among men every year.
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Ska britterna som avgörande bidrog till att snus förbjöds inom EU bli de som också ser till att förbudet upphävs? Högsta domstolen i London har fört frågan vidare till EU-domstolen i Luxemburg med dokument som utifrån §17 i Tobaksproduktdirektivet stödjer en ny prövning av snuset.
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Snus is the tobacco product that is set to help Swedish males achieve a zero level of smoking. Despite European public health officials urging that it remains banned in the EU, Sweden embraced it and looks set to be the very first country to hit the theoretical tobacco End Game target.
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Sweden is lighting the way to a cigarette-free world. The Swedish government has released data showing that the proportion of men aged between 30 and 44 smoking fell to just 5 per cent in 2016. This makes it the first country to hit a notional tobacco “end game” target proposed by global health bodies and some governments to get the prevalence of smoking down to 5 per cent or below by an agreed date. Sweden hasn’t yet signed up to such a target, although Canada, Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand have.
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A form of tobacco, sold in pouches and stuck under the upper lip, a peculiarity of Sweden and Norway. Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA’s founder, loves it. Users walk around with oddly swollen upper lips, which some people claim to find sexy. Not at all. Snus doesn’t generate the same volume of saliva as US chewing tobacco, thankfully. Snus could be coming to the UK. The High Court has just ruled that it will allow a challenge to the current ban on snus to go to the European Court of Justice. Campaigners are celebrating. Gerry Stimson, who chairs the New Nicotine Alliance, a charity that works for tobacco harm reduction, calls the ban stupid and snus “the world’s most successful substitute for smoking.” The European Union acted in 1992 after claims that snus causes cancer. Sweden got an exemption as a condition of EU entry in 1994. And as a consequence, argue campaigners, Sweden has a much lower smoking prevalence than the rest of the EU.
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Last Tuesday, we published an article about the NNA’s plan to appear in front of the High Court asking for permission to join the Swedish Match in their mission to challenge the ban on snus. Further communication with Ms. Harding from the organization has confirmed that their request has been accepted.
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Following the High Court victory on the Swedish Match Snus case, David Dorn talks to Gerry Stimson to get the real low-down on what occurred.

"If you are interested in hearing more about the day, I can recommend this video of Professor Gerry Stimson, who led the NNA's involvement, in conversation with VTTV's David Dorn. Stimson explains the basis of the challenge, what went on in the court, and describes what happens with the case from here."
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Professor Gerry Stimson, who is leading the legal challenge to the ban by the consumer group, the New Nicotine Alliance, said: “There’s now a race to see whether European judges or British politicians will lift the ban first. They realise that with British men smoking four times as much as Swedish men we cannot justify continuing the ban on snus. If the European Court doesn’t do it first, I hope that when Brexit happens the bonfire of regulations will begin with this stupid ban on the world’s most successful safer alternative to smoking.”
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The British Government has been taken to the high court by a consumer group set on persuading Jeremy Hunt to snub the EU’s laws against snus, a product which has drastically reduced the number of smokers in Sweden. Snus is a moist powder tobacco product originating from a variant of dry snuff in early 18th-century Sweden. It is placed under the upper lip for extended periods but has none of the negative effects of inhaling nicotine fumes and is known to educe lethal lung and mouth cancer.
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This morning sees the start of an extremely interesting case brought in the UK High Court to attempt to lift the EU ban on snus. It is led by snus manufacturer Swedish Match and supported by the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) to give a consumer aspect to proceedings.
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Fresh from its significant intervention in the case of Brexit v Common Sense, the UK’s legal system provided a massive boost to consumer choice on Thursday 26 Jan. The High Court in the UK announced that it will allow the existing ban on the smoking substitute snus to be referred to the European Court of Justice. Professor Gerry Stimson, who is leading the legal challenge to the ban by consumer group NNA (New Nicotine Alliance), said: “There’s now a race to see whether European judges or British politicians will lift the ban rst. They realise that with British men smoking four times as much as Swedish men we cannot justify continuing the ban on snus.”
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The New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) is to join an attempt by manufacturer Swedish Match to overturn the UK’s snus ban. If successful, the bid could lead to the smokeless tobacco product being legalised throughout the European Union (EU). Snus – pronounced to rhyme with “loose” – is a traditional product which has been in use in Sweden since the early 18th century. A moist variant of snuff, it is sold either loose or in small packets and generally placed under the top lip. It has been banned in the EU since 1992 – except in Sweden, which was granted an exemption from the ban under the 2014 Tobacco Products Directive (TPD).
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A spokesperson for the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA), in the UK, Jessica harding has contacted us at Vaping Post informing us that in two days' time, on the 26th of January, the organization is appealing to the High Court in London, asking "for permission to act as an independent intervenor in the Swedish Match application to challenge the ban on snus".
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The European Union doesn’t have much love for tobacco at all, in fact it does everything it can to make life as miserable as possible for those they think are daft enough to smoke. Not content with pushing prices on all forms of tobacco in a vain effort to get people to quit, the EU has undertaken a massive regulatory campaign to make it impossible or next to impossible for reduced risk products to be made available. Electronic cigarettes are only the latest in the crusade against all forms of “tobacco” use; despite of course the fact that e-cigarettes don’t actually contain tobacco, but they do mimic the act of smoking (part of the reason for the success for many users).
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