The Lancet: Go Smoke-Free
The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed medical magazine for doctors, has carried an article promoting going smoke-free, saying it will add years to the lives of smokers
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by Dave Cross
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New research published in The Lancet has revealed that going smoke-free by adopting methods used in Sweden would increase life expectancy around the world and prevent millions of premature deaths by 2050. The paper, Forecasting the effects of smoking prevalence scenarios on years of life lost and life expectancy from 2022 to 2050, is linked to at the foot of this article.
According to the research, reducing smoking levels to less than 5% by 2050 could increase global life expectancy by one year for men and by 0.2 years for women. This is equivalent to an additional 735 million healthy years for men and 141 million healthy years for women.
The research comes as Sweden is on the brink of becoming the first country to achieve a smoking rate of less than 5%, the threshold at which a country can officially be designated "smoke free".
Commenting on the study, Dr Delon Human, leader of Smoke Free Sweden, said: “This research further underscores the importance of implementing sensible and progressive measures to reduce the smoking burden.
“As seen in countries like Sweden, the integration of harm reduction in public policy, and ensuring people who smoke have access to less harmful alternatives, such as e-cigarettes, is key to combating the deadly toll of cigarettes.”
Smoking rates in Sweden have dropped by 55% over the past decade, thanks to progressive policies supporting alternative nicotine products.
Compared to the rest of the European Union, Sweden has 44% fewer smoking-related deaths, a 41% lower cancer rate, and 38% fewer deaths attributable to any cancer.
Key to this success has been the widespread acceptance of reduced-risk alternative products.
Dr Human concluded: “Traditional tobacco control is not enough to bring down smoking rates. It must be complemented by a comprehensive set of harm reduction measures, including making less harmful alternative products more accessible, acceptable, and affordable.”
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, 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
- Forecasting the effects of smoking prevalence scenarios on years of life lost and life expectancy from 2022 to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021- https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2468-2667%2824%2900166-X
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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