Swedish men have a 44% lower tobacco-related mortality rate compared to men elsewhere in Europe

Institute for Tobacco Studies

Ramström, L. “Tobacco-related mortality Sweden & EU easier readable charts,” Institute for Tobacco Studies Sweden, November 2020

Key facts:

• The study compiles data from The Global Burden of Disease Study.
• Swedish men have the EU’s lowest number of tobacco-related deaths. A major factor behind this is the popularity of nicotine pouches amongst men compared to cigarettes. 
• Swedish women by comparison have mortality levels around the EU average. This is due to the fact that the majority of women choose to consume nicotine through smoking cigarettes rather than nicotine pouches. 
• “These gender differences suggest that the position of Swedish men as having EU’s lowest level of tobacco-related mortality is associated with their practice of using snus instead of cigarettes.”
• “This suggests that availability of snus as an alternative nicotine delivery product can contribute to beneficial public health effects in terms of lower mortality attributable to tobacco.”
• Tobacco-related deaths caused by lung, tracheal and bronchus cancer are 61% lower in Sweden compared to the rest of Europe (14 deaths per 100,000 versus 36 deaths per 100,000).
• Tobacco-related deaths caused by lip and oral cavity cancer are 66.5% lower in Sweden compared to the rest of Europe (0.47 deaths per 100,000 versus 1.4 deaths per 100,000).
• Tobacco-related deaths caused by COPD are 47% lower in Sweden compared to the rest of Europe (9 deaths per 100,000 versus 17 deaths per 100,000).
• Tobacco-related deaths caused by stroke are 49% lower in Sweden compared to the rest of Europe (4 deaths per 100,000 versus 7.8 deaths per 100,000).

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