Swedish MEP hailed for defending nation’s life saving nicotine model in the EU

International health experts today hailed MEP Jessica Polfjärd for warning Brussels officials not to undermine the Swedish harm-reduction strategy that has driven the country to the brink of smoke-free status.

Polfjärd (EPP, Sweden) has submitted a formal written question to the European Commission asking how it will ensure that upcoming revisions to the EU Tobacco Products Directive do not remove the longstanding right of Swedes to access safer alternatives to cigarettes.

Smoke Free Sweden leader Dr Delon Human said Polfjärd’s intervention was an important defence of a policy that has delivered extraordinary public-health results.

“Jessica Polfjärd deserves recognition for defending the rights of Swedes to protect their own health,” he said. “Sweden’s harm-reduction model has helped bring smoking rates down to the lowest level in Europe and has produced the lowest levels of tobacco-related disease on the continent.”

Polfjärd has asked Brussels to respect Sweden’s long-standing exemption allowing the sale of snus, noting that this has formed part of Sweden’s EU accession agreement and has been central to the country’s success in reducing smoking.

Her question also highlights the emergence of nicotine pouches as a tobacco-free development of traditional snus and asks how the Commission will ensure that new EU rules do not undermine the Swedish model or the spirit of the original derogation.

Sweden has reduced adult smoking prevalence to just above the ‘smoke-free’ threshold of 5% by giving smokers access to far safer nicotine alternatives.

“For decades Sweden has shown that when smokers are offered practical alternatives such as snus, many of them switch,” Dr Human said. “The simple principle of replacing cigarettes with far lower-risk products has delivered one of the most remarkable public-health successes in Europe.”

He warned that EU regulation must be guided by scientific evidence and the principle of risk proportionality.

“Policies that fail to recognise the vast difference in risk between cigarettes and smoke-free alternatives will slow progress against smoking,” he said. “The Swedish model proves that harm reduction works, and it should be protected.

“Europe should learn from that success and try to emulate it, not try to regulate it out of existence.”