Norway’s upcoming tobacco restrictions will not include a ban on flavored snus

Today, April 3, according to foreign media reports, a proposed ban on flavored snus will not be included among the measures in the Norwegian government’s new tobacco strategy.

Norwegian Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol released a new public health report on March 31, which includes several proposals to strengthen tobacco regulation.

Comments from politicians before the report’s release indicated that both a ban on flavored snus and a lifetime smoking ban for those born after 2008 were under consideration, raising concerns among public health experts.

“If flavored snus is banned, we may once again see smoking prevalence rise. We do not want that,” said Karl Erik Lund of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in early March.

No ban on flavored snus

However, a new report in the newspaper Dagbladet has helped ease the anxiety of Norwegian snus users. Several independent sources familiar with the government’s public health report told the paper that a ban on flavored snus is no longer being considered.

According to Dagbladet, 55% of snus in Norway is flavored snus. However, manufacturers claim the figure is much higher, because even tobacco-flavored snus brands, such as Swedish MATch’s General snus, can be classified as flavored snus due to the inclusion of added aromas such as bergamot.

It remains unclear whether a lifetime smoking ban—inspired by a similar proposal recently introduced in New Zealand—will be included in the public health plan.

Reducing smoking rates

Norway has banned smoking in indoor restaurants since 2004. In the years following the ban, snus became more widely available, and the country’s daily smoking rate declined steadily. As more smokers switched to snus as a legal and safer alternative for Norwegians seeking to quit smoking, smoking rates continued to fall.

Between 2005 and 2018, snus use in Norway increased from 5% to 12%, while the smoking rate halved during the same period—from 25% to 12%. As of 2022, Norway’s daily smoking rate had fallen to 7%, while the proportion of daily snus users had risen to 15%.