International health experts condemn Canadian e-cigarette tax hike

This move flies in the face of the approach adopted by Sweden, which has made alternative products more accessible and affordable by taxing them on a risk-proportionate basis. This was further reflected in a recent move by Swedish authorities to reduce the tax on snus even further.

Sweden is on the cusp of becoming smoke free, with smoking rates only just above 5%. This is largely down to the availability of alternative products, such as e-cigarettes. In comparison, Canada has a smoking rate of 12%.

Commenting on the proposed changes, the leader of Smoke Free Sweden, Dr Delon Human, said: “Increasing taxes on e-cigarettes flies in the face of what Sweden has achieved. If Canadian authorities are serious about saving lives, they should follow Sweden’s lead and ensure that less harmful alternatives are more accessible and affordable to smokers.

“Restricting access to e-cigarettes will simply condemn many smokers to stick with cigarettes and sentence them to an unnecessarily premature death.”

Smoke Free Sweden is a movement that encourages other countries to follow the Swedish experience when it comes to Tobacco Harm Reduction. Sweden is about to become the first ‘smoke free’ European country, with a smoking rate of below 5 percent. This remarkable achievement can be attributed to Sweden’s open attitude towards alternative products.

References:

• Smoke Free Sweden - www.smokefreesweden.org

Photo Credit:

• Photo by Michelle Spollen on Unsplash, cropped and resized

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave 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.