Tag: Denmark

  • More Danes smoking

    More Danes smoking

    The incidence of smoking in Denmark increased significantly last year for the first time in two decades, according to a story in The Local Denmark.

    Figures based on an annual survey of smoking habits conducted among 5,017 people, showed an increase in the number of people who smoked regularly from 21.1 percent of the population in 2016 to 23.1 percent last year.

    Sporadic, small increases in smoking had in recent decades broken up an overall trend towards lower numbers, but the figures now showed a tangible increase, concluded the report, which was conducted by the Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) and three other organizations.

    Niels Them Kjær, a project manager with the Danish Cancer Society (Kræftens Bekæmpelse), called the findings of the report a “catastrophe”.

    “It is terrible that we will, also in the future, see many Danish people die of cancer,” Kjær said.

    Almost 5,000 people died annually in Denmark due to smoking-related cancer, Kjær said.

    Higher prices and stricter marketing regulation, as well as increasing the number of no-smoking areas, were key to breaking the “upward curve” of smoking in Denmark.

    “We can see that this is what works for our neighbors,” he said.

    Denmark’s neighbors Sweden, Norway and Finland have not shown statistical increases in their incidences of smoking.

    The Minister of Health Ellen Trane Nørby reportedly told Politiken that discussion of smoking should not be simplified to talking about the cost of a pack of cigarettes. “An overall cultural change in society is needed to push this curve downwards,” Nørby said.

  • Oliver Twist changing hands

    Oliver Twist changing hands

    Swedish Match (SM) said on Friday that it was acquiring the House of Oliver Twist, a privately held Danish smokeless tobacco company, headquartered in Odense, Denmark.
    ‘House of Oliver Twist (HoOT) has over 200 years of history and is Denmark’s oldest independent tobacco manufacturer,’ SM said in a note posted on its website.
    ‘The company develops, produces and sells chewing tobacco bits made of processed tobacco strands under the brand Oliver Twist.
    ‘The company’s main markets are in Scandinavia and certain other EU countries.
    ‘The company has 33 employees and annual revenues amount to approximately DKK60 million.’
    The sale is expected to be completed on April 3.
    “Oliver Twist is a good complement to our smokeless portfolio and will provide increased depth to our chewing tobacco offerings, especially in Europe,” said Lars Dahlgren (pictured), SM’s president.
    Meanwhile, Michael Drest Nielsen, the present owner of HoOT was quoted as saying that it had been important for his company to find a buyer that shared the HoOT’s vision for smokeless tobacco. “With their resources, competence and knowledge within smokeless tobacco, Swedish Match will give Oliver Twist better opportunities to develop and grow.”
    Details of the purchase price have not been disclosed.

  • Warnings not working

    Warnings not working

    Cigarette-pack health warnings do not seem to be having the desired effect in Denmark, according to a story in The Copenhagen Post.
    Although smokers are warned that smoking kills and are presented with graphic images depicting the diseases they risk contracting, the incidence of smoking has been increasing.
    The post, quoting a report by DH Nyheder, said that new figures from the Danish health authority, Sundhedsstyrelsen, profiling the health of the nation for 2017, indicated an increase in the number of people aged 16-45 who smoked daily.
    From 2010 to 2013 the number of daily smokers had been falling, but, during the past four years, there had been an increase, especially in the 16-45 age group.
    According to the survey, 16.9 percent of people of all ages said they smoked on a daily basis, up from 15 percent during 2013, and 5.5 percent said they smoked once in a while. That equates to about 1.06 million people.
    The highest numbers of smokers are found in the 55 to 64-year-old age bracket.
    The Danish cancer organization, Kræftens Bekæmpelse, has said it is ‘extremely concerned’ with the situation.
    “We find this very worrying,” said the organization’s project leader, Niels Them Kjær. “We’ve seen signs of it earlier amongst the very young, but now we can see that it is a broader group of young people who are smoking more.
    “It will mean more cases of cancer in future,” he added.
    Kjær believes laws passed in 2007 restricting smoking have created a false sense of security around the issue.
    “We need action on a broad front,” he said. “For example: higher prices, tobacco kept under the counter in shops, and perhaps ‘smoke-free’ schooling in establishments for educating young people. That would make a big difference.”

  • ‘Make’ them quit

    ‘Make’ them quit

    The umbrella organization for Danish municipalities, Kommunernes Landsforening (KL), has proposed a new anti-smoking initiative whose tentacles would reach into the private spaces of municipal employees who choose to smoke.
    According to a story in The Copenhagen Post quoting Politiken; if KL has its way, soon, municipal employees will not be allowed to smoke during ‘working hours’.
    The new proposal would mean that these employees would not be allowed to smoke at work, on the way to and from work or when they work at home.
    “Smoking is the single most negative factor for overall health in Denmark,” Thomas Adelskov, the chairman of KL’s social and health committee, was quoted as saying. “That’s why we are urging all the municipalities to make a special effort to make more people stop smoking and to prevent fewer starting.”
    The Post said that if the country’s municipalities chose to go down this path, they would seem to have the backing of the Danish population, but it wasn’t clear how it arrived at this conclusion given that it reported that only 40 percent of people in Denmark supported general workplace smoking bans.
    ‘A new opinion poll carried out by Megafon for Politiken and TV2 shows that 40 percent think that smoke-free work places should be introduced – not only in the municipal regime but also in private companies,’ the Post wrote.
    ‘Smoke-free schools are even more popular. Last November, a poll carried out by Kantar Gallup for the cancer organization Kræftens Bekæmpelse showed a whopping 79 percent behind the idea, with only nine percent against.’

  • SM acquires V2 Tobacco

    SM acquires V2 Tobacco

    Swedish Match has acquired V2 Tobacco, previously a privately-owned smokeless-tobacco company primarily active in Europe.

    The purchase price was not disclosed in a press note posted on Swedish Match’s website today, but V2 Tobacco, which was started in 2006 and which has its headquarters in Silkeborg, Denmark, was said to have an annual turnover ‘in the range of’ SEK160 million.

    Annual production at V2 Tobacco, which has about 60 employees and which is said to have modern and flexible production facilities, is ‘close to 20 million cans of chew bags and snus combined’.

    The company has a brand portfolio that includes Thunder, Offroad, and Phantom.

    It is active in more than 25 markets, but its main markets are Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Germany, Switzerland and on-line. It is said to have a small but growing presence in ‘certain other European markets’.

    ‘In this transaction, Swedish Match will acquire 100 percent of the shares in V2 Tobacco (production and sales/marketing in Denmark),’ the press note said.

    ‘The current CEO and one of the founders of the company, Marc Vogel, has agreed to remain with the company, which will be operated for the most part independently from other Swedish Match businesses.

    ‘The closing date of the transaction is August 31st.’

    “We are very excited about this transaction,” said Lars Dahlgren, president and CEO of Swedish Match. “A vibrant and independent V2 Tobacco business fits very well as a complement to our existing organization. V2 Tobacco´s modern and adaptable production allows Swedish Match improved flexibility and expanded opportunities to adapt to changing consumer desires, helping Swedish Match to move further toward its vision of a world without cigarettes.”

    Meanwhile, Vogel said it had been important to find a buyer who shared V2 tobacco’s values and ambitions for the future.

    “With their long history, competence and their extensive work with product quality, Swedish Match will give our operation in Silkeborg new and better opportunities to develop and grow,” he said.

  • Another move in end game

    Another move in end game

    The Danish Institute of Human Rights (DIHR) has said that the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) require the tobacco industry to stop the production and marketing of tobacco products.

    In a note posted on its website, the DIHR said the United Nations Human Rights Council had endorsed the UNGPs, which applied to all companies including tobacco companies.

    ‘The Human Rights Council has expressed its authoritative expectation that all companies exercise due diligence in the efforts to respect human rights,’ the note said.

    ‘According to the UNGPs companies should avoid causing or contributing to adverse impacts on human rights. Where such impacts occur, companies should immediately cease the actions that cause or contribute to the impacts.

    ‘Tobacco is deeply harmful to human health, and there can be no doubt that the production and marketing of tobacco is irreconcilable with the human right to health.

    ‘For the tobacco industry, the UNGPs therefore require the cessation of the production and marketing of tobacco.’

    The issue has come to a head because, in September, the DIHR began work on a human rights assessment of Philip Morris International.

    The DIHR said that work had been completed and that it had decided to end its engagement with PMI.

    The DIHR note, which explains the purpose of its engagement with PMI, is at: https://www.humanrights.dk/news/human-rights-assessment-philip-morris-international.

  • Age-verification app

    Age-verification app

    The problem of underage people buying cigarettes and alcohol might soon be a thing of the past in Denmark, according to a story by Stephen Gadd for cphpost.dk.

    Fourteen interested parties from different sectors such as business, trade unions, interest organisations and producers have come together to launch a new mobile app called Smart ID, which can be presented by would-be purchasers to verify their age.

    “I hope it will become more customary to be asked your age in a shop and that we can agree that children should not be allowed to buy adult-exclusive products,” said Susanne Mørch Koch, the administrative director of Danske Spil, one of the developers of the app.

    Gadd said that a recent series of articles in Politiken had highlighted how easy it was for underage children to buy cigarettes in Denmark, where nearly all the shops approached sold tobacco products to people without checking their IDs.

    De Samvirkende Købmænd, an organization representing many shops, kiosks and petrol stations, says that it is happy to co-operate with the initiative, but there is a problem. Many shops experience a negative reaction when people are asked their age. “If a cashier is repeatedly berated for just doing their job and asking for ID, then it could well be that they don’t ask in the future,” Claus Bøgelund, the vice director of the organization, said. “We have to do something about that.”

    Meanwhile, the Danish Cancer Society’s project director Niels Them Kjær, who is involved in tobacco limitation programs, was quoted as saying he was happy to see some focus on the problem. But he was sceptical as to whether the initiative would have the desired result without the campaign’s being followed by concrete action.

    “Now we just need shops to start asking young people their ages, but they’ve promised to do that before,” he said. “We also need the authorities to get involved, and I think we will probably have to start fining shops that break the law.”

  • New research hits a nerve

    eyes photo
    Photo by madaise

    Danish researchers have discovered that the children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy have fewer optic nerves than do the offspring of mothers who didn’t smoke, according to a story in The Copenhagen Post.

    The study, carried out by the Rigshospitalet city hospital in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen and Zealand University Hospital, found that mothers of children who smoked during pregnancy had optic nerves that were five percent thinner.

    It wasn’t clear from the story whether the issue was about the number of optic nerves or their thickness, but it was certainly seen as important.

    “A five percent difference doesn’t sound like a lot for the vision of a 12-year old child,” Inger Christine Munch, a researcher at Zealand University Hospital and senior author of the findings,” was quoted by TV2 News as saying.

    “But we lose nerve fibers throughout our lives, and at some point that will lead to holes in the field of view. At that point it would be nice to have had some more optic nerves to draw from.”

    The researchers followed 1,323 Danish children born in 2000 and they intend to continue to monitor these young people to see what other consequences smoking during pregnancy might have on vision.

    The results could be used also to launch new studies aimed at looking into whether other parts of the central nervous system of fetuses are impacted by mothers smoking while pregnant.

    The latest research was recently published in the scientific journal JAMA Ophthalmology.