Sweden's Tobacco Ranking Drops Due to Tax System
For a long time, Sweden has been seen as a leading country in reducing tobacco use. But the trend has now reversed, and it's sad to see us failing in international rankings again, says Lisa Klefbom, a policy expert at the Cancer Fund.
Every three years, the Tobacco Control Scale is conducted by the organization "Smoke Free Partnership". The report evaluates the success of 37 European countries in reducing tobacco use based on recommendations from the World Bank. Since its inception in 2005, Sweden was ranked sixth, but its ranking has dropped to 21st place in the latest report. Notably, Sweden scored poorly in terms of its tobacco tax system.
Sweden has moved from a green to an orange ranking. Our Nordic neighbor countries are far ahead of us in overall rankings, particularly in terms of pricing. For example, in Norway, the cost of tobacco is nearly three times that of Sweden, according to Lisa Klefbom.
Translation: Hoping to see increased tax revenues.
Despite a decline in smoking rates, 6,000 people in Sweden still develop cancer each year due to smoking. As such, the country aims to become smoke-free by 2025. Currently, 6% of the population smokes, but this varies greatly domestically, with the percentage of smokers doubling to 12% in socioeconomically weaker groups. Studies suggest that increasing tobacco taxes is one of the most effective measures to address socioeconomic disparities. Thus, the Cancer Foundation hopes to see tobacco taxes increase by at least 10% on a regular basis.
When smoking has become such an obvious issue of inequality, we cannot consider our efforts in Sweden as successful. There is a group in Sweden that still is more prone to getting cancer due to smoking than others. While we are doing better than the global average, there is a danger of complacency from a political perspective. Lisa Klefbom warned that such an attitude could have far-reaching consequences.
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