Ireland still lost in the smoke as Sweden finds the pot of gold

Monday 17 March – As Ireland marks St. Patrick’s Day, it should also have been celebrating its year of becoming officially ‘smoke-free’. But it remains far from achieving its goal of reducing smoking prevalence to less than 5% by 2025.

Despite its ambitious targets, Ireland’s smoking rate is still 16% – a modest decline from 18% in 2020. At the current pace, Ireland won’t reach its goal before 2050.

Meanwhile, Sweden has found the pot of gold. Having set the same smoke-free objective for 2025, Sweden is on the brink of success, with just 5.3% of adults smoking.

Sweden has achieved this remarkable reduction by embracing tobacco harm reduction, making safer nicotine alternatives – such as snus, modern nicotine pouches and vapes – acceptable, accessible and affordable to adult smokers.

“Sweden has halved smoking rates in just over a decade by following a science-based, harm reduction approach,” said Dr. Delon Human, leader of Smoke Free Sweden. “They did not achieve this by banning products or restricting choices. They empowered smokers with safer alternatives – and the results speak for themselves.”

In contrast, Ireland has taken a restrictive stance against alternative nicotine products. The government has announced plans to ban disposable vapes, limit e-liquid flavours to tobacco only and introduce a 50-cent per millilitre excise tax on e-liquids. These measures threaten to undermine smoking cessation efforts and push more smokers back to cigarettes.

“Ireland’s smoking rate is still nearly three times that of Sweden’s,” Dr. Human continued. “Instead of relying on the luck of the Irish, policymakers should follow the evidence-based policies that work. Sweden’s experience proves that embracing harm reduction is the fastest and most effective path to a smoke-free future.”

As Ireland struggles to meet its targets, Smoke Free Sweden urges policymakers to reconsider their approach and adopt a pragmatic harm reduction strategy that has already delivered results elsewhere in Europe.