Tobacco Facts has on many occasions drawn attention to white snus and the risks during pregnancy. The Pregnancy Register's statistics for 2023 showed that 1,7 percent were using snus when registering for maternity care. Now the figures for 2024 have been presented and they show that the trend is continuing. The proportion who use snus when they come to maternity care is now 1,9 percent. In five years, the proportion has increased from 1,2 to 1,9 percent.
Cecilia Magnusson, a researcher at Karolinska Institutet, tells Dagens Nyheter that she believes the increase will continue.
“It is mainly younger women who have not reached childbearing age who have started using snus. So I think the numbers will continue to rise,” she says.
Sveriges Radio P4 Värmland has also drawn attention to the increasing use of snus.
More dependent
Camilla Spendilow, doctor and medical director of the maternity ward at Karlstad Central Hospital, tells P4 Värmland.
– Our concern is that the nicotine content is so much higher than in regular snus and that the addictive effect appears to be significantly higher.
Camilla Spendilow recommends that women who use snus try to cut down and quit before trying to have children. Tobacco Facts has previously reported that the Kalmar region has made a special effort to support women in quitting before starting a family. But there has not been much interest.
– There is a greater tendency to tackle physical activity and dietary habits before pregnancy, but when it comes to tobacco, many people think that they can quit once they get pregnant, said Sandra Vikman, health coordinator and certified tobacco cessation specialist at Region Kalmar.
What works well in the Kalmar Region, however, is receiving support to quit or reduce the use of tobacco and nicotine through maternity care.
Panic doesn't help.
Anna Gunnerbeck, a pediatric neurologist at Astrid Lindgren's Children's Hospital and researcher at Karolinska Institutet, has previously told Tobacco Facts that the risks of snus are comparable to moderate smoking, less than ten cigarettes a day.
The risks of snuff use are: miscarriage, healthy fetuses dying in the womb (60 percent increased risk), babies born prematurely (60 percent increased risk), growth retardation (30 percent increased risk), cleft lip and palate (50 percent increased risk), the baby dying in the first year of life (70 percent increased risk). Snuff use also carries a 300 percent increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
Anna Gunnerbeck wants to warn against snus use but at the same time not to spread panic. She has pointed out that sudden infant death syndrome is extremely rare. She also wants to emphasize that those who stop using snus early in pregnancy do not seem to have any increased risks.
