Smoke Free Sweden: Australian Restrictions Deprive Women of Best Tool to Quit Smoking

CANBERRA, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On International Women’s Day (March 8), Australian policymakers are being warned that the retail ban on oral nicotine pouches denies women access to an innovation linked to one of the world’s sharpest declines in female smoking.

The warning accompanies the release of Empowerment in a Pouch, a report documenting how access to tobacco-free nicotine pouches has accelerated Sweden’s progress towards becoming smoke-free, particularly among women.

“Sweden’s experience shows what happens when women are given realistic alternatives to smoking,” said Professor Marewa Glover, behavioural scientist and co-author. “When safer options are accessible, women quit at scale. When they are regulated as if they were cigarettes, that opportunity is reduced.”

The report shows that since nicotine pouches became available in Sweden in 2016:

• Women’s smoking rates have fallen by nearly 50%, now among the lowest globally.
• Women’s quit-smoking rates increased around threefold, putting Sweden on track to become the first smoke-free country (adult daily smoking below 5%).
• Female smoking is declining six times faster in Sweden than elsewhere in Europe, according to WHO statistics.

These findings are highly relevant for Australia, where around one in 11 women still smokes. Nicotine pouches are regulated as prescription-only medicines and are effectively out of reach for the million-plus women for whom cigarettes remain a leading cause of cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness.

Nicotine pouches contain no tobacco and involve no combustion. Used under the lip, they deliver pharmaceutical-grade nicotine without smoke or vapour. Survey and focus-group research show women value their discretion, convenience and compatibility with professional and family life.

Participants rated nicotine pouches as the most effective quitting aid, outperforming vapes and traditional nicotine replacement therapies. Women ranked pouches almost three times higher than vapes and 56% higher than nicotine gum.

“As Australia refines its nicotine framework, it faces a critical choice,” said Dr Delon Human, co-author and former secretary-general of the World Medical Association. “Regulation should reflect risk. Treating smoke-free nicotine products as cigarettes risks entrenching smoking and leaving women with fewer viable ways to quit.”