Sweden Must Defend Its Approach
Sweden must defend smoke-free policies at the forthcoming World Health Organisation’s Conference of Parties, says Smoke Free Sweden
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by Dave Cross
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Swedish Minister of Social Affairs, Jakob Forssmed, has stated that, "Swedish positions for the upcoming meetings have not yet been finalised."
Smoke Free Sweden says this statement was made in response to an official Parliamentary Question (PQ) submitted by Swedish Member of Parliament, Isak From. The Parliamentarian was seeking insights into Sweden's approach to sharing its smoke-free success with other governments.
The PQ highlighted the upcoming WHO conference scheduled for the end of November, which aims to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco. Considering that Sweden is on the verge of achieving smoke-free status, potentially becoming the first country in the world to do so, active participation and knowledge sharing should be of utmost importance, the consumer group says.
International advocates are urging the Swedish government to share its model. Delon Human, leader of the Smoke Free Sweden campaign, emphasised: “Sweden’s remarkable success story in tobacco control is largely due to its strategic policies that include harm reduction measures, such as promoting safer alternatives to tobacco, such as e-cigarettes and oral pouches.
“By adopting the Swedish model, millions of lives across WHO member states can be saved. That’s in no small part a result of the accessibility, availability and affordability of safer alternatives to cigarettes, such as e-cigarettes, in Sweden.”
COP10, titled 'Together, promoting Healthier Lives,' is scheduled to take place in Panama from 20th to 25th November."
Smoke Free Sweden is a campaign which encourages other countries to follow the Swedish model when it comes to Tobacco Harm Reduction. Sweden is about to become the first ‘smoke-free’ European country in 2023, with a smoking rate of below 5 percent. This is a huge achievement, and will be 17 years ahead of the 2040 EU target. This can be attributed to Sweden’s open attitude towards alternative products.
For more information on Sweden's successful approach to becoming a smoke-free nation, visit www.smokefreesweden.org.
References:
- Smoke Free Sweden Attacks WHO Failure - https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/vaping-news/2023-06-07_smoke-free-sweden-attacks-who-failure.html
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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