According to a recent science report, Sweden has successfully reduced the smoking rate to a mere 5%. The country is guiding the way to a smokeless world. Surprisingly, only 15% of people in the United States smoke, but over the next three years the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) intends to reduce this rate to 12%. The science report also indicated that the country with the second lowest smoking rate in Europe is Denmark, who lands at 15%.
The entire world has a lot to learn from Sweden’s efforts and success in reducing the national smoking rate. Note that the biggest lesson is that, rather than stressing death prevention, countries should probably highlight the so-called harm reduction. This could result in significant leaps forward in a better, more evolved public health. A retailer who tries to minimize the damages caused by smoking, is SnusDirect. They have cleared the gap for people outside Sweden to try the product of snus by offering worldwide shipping with trusted companies such as UPS and PostNord.
Generally, harm reduction emphasizes that some levels of addictions can be successfully rerouted towards less-harmful and probably non-lethal habits. When it comes to smoking, it took a gentle federal push in Sweden in the early 80s to wean a larger percentage of smokers by state off their cigarettes by encouraging them to opt for snus, a moist tobacco powder invented in the 17th century. Currently, less than 19% of men in Sweden use snus, and about 4% of women use snus daily.
Additionally, medical reports indicate that Sweden boasts of being a nation with the lowest lung-cancer death rate. It’s also a country with the lowest rate of smoking-related cardiovascular health complications in men. Most medical experts still believe that Sweden has the lowest rate of male death associated with cancer attributed to smoking habits.
Kenneth Warner, a professor, and Harold Pollack, a public health expert, believe that the low cancer rates can be traced back to the old days of the snus experiments more than three decades ago. Though both snus and other types of smokeless tobacco as well as the typical tobacco have side effects, the case of Sweden is proving otherwise. Probably encouraging the use of snus and other types of smokeless tobacco is the right way to go when it comes to reducing the smoking rate globally.
Harm reduction seems to be a controversial approach to enhancing in most western nations. This is because governing bodies and medical institutions feel obliged to argue for a total cessation. The reality is, recommending any product believed to cause any level of harm, no matter its potential to save lives, could harm the public.
This is the reason the United State Food and Drug Administration bans the advertisement of snus as a health-friendly product. In fact, many European Union countries are not allowed to sell snus. Experts groups that advocate for harm reduction believe that approaches used by Sweden are more effective in reducing smoking rates. This is because the government doesn’t ask people to kick their tobacco consumption habits all at once. Snus consumption offers a smooth tobacco user an opportunity to consume nicotine doses without smoking.
