Post: Swedish smoking must become more expensive
We have a common problem in the Nordic countries: Smoking leads to many people getting cancer. About 90 percent of all lung cancers are caused by smoke. To make it easier to escape to the hill, we must look for solutions across national borders. First step: make tobacco in Sweden more expensive.
Next week, cross-border trade and taxes will be debated in the Storting. Some voices will probably shout loudly about trade leakage to Sweden, and they will demand lower fees on tobacco. We have heard these arguments many times before. However, we who represent the cancer association in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway believe that the solution lies in a completely different place.
The evidence is clear: Increasing taxes means that people buy less tobacco. Several studies from countries where they have increased the tobacco tax show that consumption is declining.
Norway is a good example of that. We have long had high taxes on tobacco, but which has led to less than a percentage of between 16 and 24 years of daily smoke. The EU Cancer Plan points to the same thing: Tobacco taxes are the most effective measure to reduce the number of young people who start smoking.
There is a big difference in tobacco prices in the Nordic countries. In Norwegian kroner, the same smoke package costs 140 kroner in Norway, and only 64 kroner in Sweden. That is less than half the price in Sweden. The other countries are somewhere in between, with 93 kroner in Finland and 71 kroner in Denmark.
In Norway, Denmark and Finland, the price of tobacco has increased in recent years. In Sweden, on the other hand, prices are still low. When one takes into account the purchasing power of the inhabitants, Sweden actually has among the lowest cigarette prices in the EU. It shows a report from the European Commission. The fact that tobacco is so cheap in Sweden undermines the preventive work being done in the other countries.
Many Norwegians buy tobacco in Sweden because it is cheaper there. This is shown by a survey carried out by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. A similar trend can be seen in Denmark. The government has received the price of cigarettes, but unfortunately there may not be an effect as great as they had hoped. In the same way as Norwegians, Danes buy tobacco in Sweden. The figures show that at the same time as Danish cigarettes became more expensive, sales increased in Sweden.
In Norway alone, 6,000 people die from smoke every year. The corresponding figure for Finland is around 5000. In Sweden, smoke causes around 6000 cancers every year. In Denmark around 6500.
With higher tobacco prices, fewer people will get sick and fewer will die. The Swedes have a large backlog to make up for, and a pack of cigarettes must cost more than 100 kroner. Already now, Sweden should draw up a plan for a gradually rising price. If not, Sweden will always have the lowest cigarette prices in the Nordic region and continue to undermine public health work in the Nordic region.
Cancer is one of our biggest public diseases. The number of people getting sick from cancer has increased for a long time, and the increase seems to continue. If more people are smoke-free, fewer people will be affected by cancer.
To increase tobacco taxes and important measures to continue to reduce consumption in all the Nordic countries and jointly strengthen the health of the inhabitants. Now Norwegian politicians must do everything they can to get their Nordic partners in the right direction.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We want to share our stuff using link that leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For further terms see here.