Sweden Tobacco Use Declines (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Sweden Tobacco Use Declines
Source: AP, Friday, 9/17/99
Friday, September 17, 1999; 10:07 a.m. EDT

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Not even one in five Swedish adults smokes
tobacco daily, making it the first and only country in the world to meet
the World Health Organization's target for cutting smoking, a new study
has found.

In 1998, 19.7 percent of Swedes between the ages of 16 and 84 were
smokers, according to the statistical research institute Veca. In 1980,
more than one in three Swedes smoked daily.

That makes Sweden the only country on the global to meet the WHO's 20
percent target, Veca said in its report, which was published Sept. 15.

Smoking trends aren't uniformly positive, however. The use of moist snuff,
a kind of chewing tobacco that's popular in Sweden, has increased from 400
grams per person per year, to 750 grams.