World No Tobacco Day: Sweden’s Experience and Lessons for Africa

World No Tobacco Day is upon us again, seeking to advise, inspire and support smokers to quit their deadly habit. For more than 30 years, the campaign has helped to draw global attention to the dangers of tobacco use.

It will once again ignite the spark in many smokers to abandon the deadly grip of cigarettes that lead to a variety of health problems, including cancer and heart disease. Without question, any life saved as a result should be celebrated.

Giving up ‘cold turkey’ is unimaginably difficult. It’s therefore essential that the World No Tobacco Day campaign offers realistic and achievable routes away from cigarettes. The good news is that these routes do exist.

Efforts to reduce tobacco consumption in Africa have been hampered by several factors. Most countries on the continent have ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and while there has been some success in its execution, this international legislation focuses primarily on non-health-related approaches to tobacco control — including price and tax measures to reduce demand, strategies to reduce smuggling limits on tobacco advertising — but fails to directly address cessation and harm reduction strategies.

Between 2002 and 2030, smoking-related deaths are projected to double in low and middle-income countries, including in Sub-Saharan Africa. The number of cigarette smokers in the region was estimated at 52 million in 2000 but increased to 66 million in 2015 and is projected to increase to 84 million in 2025, making the region one of the only two regions in the world projected to have an increase in the number of tobacco smokers.

Sweden on the other hand, is on the brink of a world-first in public health – one that provides a roadmap to save tens of millions of lives across every continent on the globe. A recent report – “The Swedish Experience: A Roadmap for a Smoke-free Society,” – published by Dr. Delon Human, suggests that if other countries adopt similar measures, millions of lives could be saved across the continent in the next decade.

The rationale behind tobacco harm reduction, which legislators in Sweden have grasped, is based on the understanding that the major health risks associated with tobacco use arise from the inhalation of toxic chemicals produced by burning tobacco, and not from nicotine.

The Swedish experience of beating smoking and gaining the associated benefits of reducing smoking-related deaths, conclusively proves that the best-kept secret in tobacco control is to make less harmful alternative products accessible, acceptable, and affordable to inveterate smokers.

On this World No Tobacco Day, let’s celebrate Sweden’s victory over smoking and use it as a catalyst for change in Africa.