Children and nicotine use

Of schoolchildren in grade 9 of primary school

• 29 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls use snus (with varying frequency), including white snus.
• 6 percent of boys and 8 percent of girls smoke (with varying frequency)
• 34 percent of boys and 45 percent of girls have used e-cigarettes (with varying frequency)

Of school students in grade 2 of upper secondary school in primary school

• 27 percent of boys and 22 percent of girls use snus (with varying frequency), including white snus.
• 17 percent of boys and 21 percent of girls smoke (with varying frequency)
• 50 percent of boys and 63 percent of girls use e-cigarettes (with varying frequency)

Children in grade 9 respond that they get their nicotine products by buying them themselves in the store, from adults who buy them for them, from their friends and from their parents. Internet sales have made it easier for children to get over nicotine. Sweden therefore has some way to go before the Tobacco Act's requirement of an 18-year age limit for the sale and distribution of tobacco products to children is fully implemented in practice.

Children in Sweden are still exposed to tobacco smoke at home. Passive smoking increases the risk of respiratory and ear infections, can cause or worsen asthma and affect the development of lung capacity in children.

An important prerequisite for the child's right to life is to be born as healthy as possible. Research clearly shows that both smoking and snus use during pregnancy pose serious health risks for the child and the mother. Nicotine use increases the risk of, among other things, preeclampsia, premature birth, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome. According to figures from the pregnancy registry, 2,8 percent of pregnant women in Sweden smoked at the time of registration for maternal health care (2023) and 1,6 percent used snus (2024). Snus use has become more common among pregnant women, which is largely linked to more young women using white snus.

Marketing and exposure

Many people are probably thinking, “Aren’t children exposed to tobacco and nicotine advertising these days?” The fact is, unfortunately, that the tobacco industry still finds many ways to market nicotine use to children, both in Sweden and in other parts of the world. Despite the industry’s own claims that marketing is very limited, large sums of money are still being invested in marketing, and the companies’ profits show that it pays off.

Attractively designed packaging is an important part of modern marketing of nicotine products. Therefore, it is important for companies to be able to display their products in stores. One way to reduce the power of this advertising would be to ban the display of nicotine products at points of sale, something that several countries have introduced. Most children and young people are currently exposed to the tobacco industry's indirect marketing through social media. Product placement in films, TV programmes, computer games and other media is another method of marketing tobacco to children. Flavouring in both e-cigarettes and snus also means an increased opportunity to reach children and arouse their curiosity.

Swedish legislation provides too little protection

There is legislation to protect children from tobacco smoke, the marketing of nicotine products and to prevent them from obtaining all forms of nicotine products. Legislation on smoke-free schoolyards, the ban on sales to minors and the ban on advertising for cigarettes are good examples of this. Smoking bans in outdoor environments such as outdoor cafes, entrances, platforms and playgrounds were introduced in 2019 and are important steps on the way to a society with tobacco-free children.

But there are still gaps in the legislation, and a serious problem is that supervision is often very deficient. Children are still exposed to passive smoking. Children are also reached by tobacco industry marketing, e.g. through social media, in stores and at festivals. They have easy access to nicotine products, including through online purchases and through older people buying them for them.

In recent years, more and more children have tried or regularly started using new flavored nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes and white snus. Sweden therefore needs to take a bigger step forward and go beyond the tobacco control convention minimum recommendations.

• Invest heavily in improving the supervision of existing regulations.
• Introduce standardized packages and a ban on tobacco display in stores.
• Ban smoking in cars where children are traveling.
• The Tobacco Act should be revised to also include educational and information initiatives as part of tobacco prevention work based on the child's right to information about their health.
• The Education Act should clarify the school's obligation to work preventively on tobacco issues. In addition, there is a need for better evaluation of the information and education aimed at children and young people.
• Ban on flavorings in all nicotine products.
• Ban on all forms of advertising for all nicotine products, in social media, stores and traditional media.

BRiT – Children's Rights in the Tobacco Issue aims to shed light on the WHO Tobacco Convention from a child rights perspective (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

Everyone who works with children's rights issues and tobacco prevention in the country has a responsibility and opportunities to contribute and participate in highlighting the WHO's tobacco control convention from a child's perspective. To facilitate this work, BRiT has produced presentation material. The presentations are based on the images that the two experts in the project, Margaretha Haglund, tobacco policy expert, and Maria Schöld, child rights lawyer, have produced for the seminars that have been held in several places in the country. The presentations have been further developed and updated by psychologist Margareta Pantzar with contributions from TPLR (Tobacco Prevention Network in the County Councils and Regions), and they were revised and updated in the autumn of 2019.

Material aimed at adults

Below is a presentation with 38 images, as well as a document with captions for each image that can be used as a basis for developing your own speech script.

Download presentation
Materials for developing speech scripts

Presentation aimed at young people 15-18 years old

Below is a presentation with 22 images, as well as a document with captions for each image that can be used as a basis for developing your own speech script.

Download presentation
Materials for developing speech scripts