TobaccoReporter logo

Tag: Sweden

  • Sweden: Lawmakers Reject Vape Flavor Ban

    Sweden: Lawmakers Reject Vape Flavor Ban

    Photo: WDnet Studio

    Sweden’s Parliament, the Riksdag, rejected a ban on sales of flavored vaping products, with 177 lawmakers voting against the proposal and 126 lawmakers voting in favor, reports Vaping360.

    Introduced by the government’s Ministry of Social Affairs in late February, the new rules would have taken effect next January, and would have prohibited flavors other than tobacco in all e-liquid, including zero-nicotine vape juice.

    In rejecting the proposal, lawmakers heeded the advice of the Riksdag’s social affairs committee, which had recommended adopting proposed regulations for nicotine pouches and synthetic nicotine but eliminating the flavor ban.

    Seven other European countries have banned non-tobacco vape flavors. In Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary and Ukraine, flavored vape restrictions are currently in place. Lithuania’s flavor ban will take effect July 1. In the Netherlands, the flavor prohibition scheduled to begin in July has been postponed until January 2023.

    No European country has banned vaping products outright.

  • Vapers Petition Lawmakers to Stop Swedish Flavor Ban

    Vapers Petition Lawmakers to Stop Swedish Flavor Ban

    WVA Director Michael Landl holds an open letter to the Swedish parliament about the benefits of vape flavors. (Photo: WVA)

    The global vaping advocacy group World Vapers Alliance (WVA) on May 24 delivered an open letter to the Swedish parliament urging policymakers to stop a pending ban on flavors

    A day later, the WVA marched in front of the Parliament with the slogan “Flavours help smokers quit” and urged lawmakers to vote against the ban.

    Earlier this year, the Swedish government introduced a bill that would prohibit all non-tobacco vape flavors in nicotine and non-nicotine products. If approved, the bill is set to enter into force on Jan. 1, 2023.

    “I benefited firsthand from vaping and managed to stay smokefree for the last few years,” said Michael Landl, director of the WVA, in a statement. “Like most other smokers, I tried to find a way out of cigarettes—but nothing worked for me—the patches, the gums, the inhalers. Vaping—and especially combined with flavors—was my savior. And like me there are millions around the world who are healthier and lead a better life because of vaping.”

    According to Landl, the ban on vape flavors will have disastrous consequences on public health:

    “According to Yale School of Public Health, vaping flavored e-cigarettes are associated with a 230 percent increase in the odds of adult smoking cessation,” he said. “If vape flavors were banned, more than 150.000 swedes could be pushed back to smoking, which goes against any public health authority.”

  • Sweden Wants to Prohibit Flavored Vapes

    Sweden Wants to Prohibit Flavored Vapes

    The Swedish government has proposed a ban on nontobacco-flavored vapes, including menthol, according to Vaping360.

    The proposed law includes nicotine and non-nicotine e-liquid and regulates all synthetic nicotine products, setting the purchase age to 18. If the law is passed, the sale of flavored vape products will be banned effective Jan. 1, 2023.

    The bill is currently being reviewed by the Council on Legislation, which considers the legal validity of proposed bills before they are considered by legislators. Parliament will vote on the bill as early as March 22.

    If the bill is passed, Sweden will be the eighth European country to prohibit flavors, following Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ukraine, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

  • Crows Trained to Pick up Cigarette Butts

    Crows Trained to Pick up Cigarette Butts

    Photo: Eric Isselée

    A Swedish company is deploying crows to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of a town near Stockholm as part of a cost-cutting drive, reports The Guardian.

    The wild birds receive a little food for every butt that they deposit in a customized machine.

    Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of Corvid Cleaning, the company behind the method, estimates that his method could save at least 75 percent of the costs associated with picking up cigarette butts in the city.

    More than 1 billion cigarette butts are left on Sweden’s streets each year, representing 62 percent of all litter, according to The Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation says that. Södertälje spends SEK 20 million ($2.19 million) on street cleaning.

    Södertälje is carrying out a pilot project before potentially rolling out the operation across the city, with the health of the birds being the key consideration given the type of waste involved.

    New Caledonian crows, a member of the corvid family of birds, are as good at reasoning as a human seven-year-old, research has suggested, making them the smartest birds for the job.

    “They are easier to teach and there is also a higher chance of them learning from each other,” said Günther-Hanssen. “At the same time, there’s a lower risk of them mistakenly eating any rubbish.

    Tomas Thernström, a waste strategist at Södertälje municipality, said the potential of the pilot depended on financing.

    “It would be interesting to see if this could work in other environments as well. Also from the perspective that we can teach crows to pick up cigarette butts, but we can’t teach people not to throw them on the ground. That’s an interesting thought,” he said.