Oral nicotine pouches could make Sweden the first country to achieve “smoke-free” status as early as 2025.
Patrik Hildingsson, vice president of communications and public affairs at Swedish Match, the maker of oral nicotine pouches, told a group of visiting Filipino journalists that Sweden could reach smoke-free status “within a very near future, most optimistically, maybe next year.”
Oral nicotine pouches have played a significant role in reducing cigarette smoking in Sweden. Swedish Match continues to innovate its products to help the country achieve smoke-free status sooner.
A smoke-free society is defined as having a smoking prevalence of 5% or below. According to the Public Health Agency of Sweden, the country’s smoking prevalence is currently 5.6%.
The decline in smoking coincided with a resurgence of snus, an oral tobacco product that originated in Sweden more than 200 years ago. Snus consists of ground tobacco leaves in a small pouch placed under the lip.
Swedish Match improved on snus, leading to the development of ZYN, an oral nicotine product made from food-grade ingredients containing nicotine but no tobacco. ZYN is part of a category of smoke-free products that do not burn or produce harmful smoke.
Hildingsson said the company “used the learnings from Swedish snus and then put that as a platform” to improve the product to meet different consumer preferences.
“The main difference here is that it doesn’t contain tobacco. We extract nicotine from tobacco and then add it. So even though Swedish snus is considered a low-chemical type of tobacco product compared to others, we’ve lowered the levels even more with ZYN,” he said.
“We can quite firmly say that ZYN is a better option than cigarettes and other combustible products,” Hildingsson said.
ZYN has also gained popularity in the United States, attracting legal-age smokers who want to get nicotine without smoke or vape emissions. About 358 million cans of ZYN were reportedly shipped to the U.S. in 2023, up 62% from the previous year.
Philip Morris International acquired Swedish Match in 2022 to accelerate its vision of a smoke-free future. The company said the acquisition would “enable us to provide access to a broader range of better alternatives for those adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke.”
ZYN was among the brands presented at the recent Technovation event in Neuchatel, Switzerland, where members of the media engaged with Philip Morris’ senior leaders, scientists and research and development experts.
“Since the early ’70s, snus has experienced continuous growth, and cigarette use is declining. Given the harm caused by cigarette smoking, governments are launching various national and regional campaigns,” Hildingsson said.
He credited Swedes’ receptiveness to health trends for the decline. Sweden’s tobacco control policies rank in the middle among European Union member countries. “Sweden has always been an average country, not better or worse than the average EU country in implementing tobacco control measures. But when it comes to outcomes, we outperform every country,” Hildingsson said.
Lung cancer prevalence in Sweden has significantly declined compared to other European countries. Hildingsson cited public health data showing that lung cancer incidence in Sweden is less than half the EU average. He also noted declines in oral, esophageal, and neck cancers.
“Many believe that nicotine causes cancer, but at least the International Agency for Research on Cancer does not classify nicotine as a carcinogen,” he said.
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