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Fewer young people smoke – but more use other tobacco and nicotine products

Kasper Grandetoft
June 24th, 2021


This article is more than 3 years old.

Snus, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine bags are on the rise, while cigarettes are less popular among the 15-29 age bracket

Every fourth person between the age of 15-29 use at least one kind of tobacco- or nicotine product.(photo: Pixabay)

The number of young people smoking cigarettes has dropped. At the same time the consumption of alternative tobacco and nicotine products are on the rise. The result comes from a new report by the national institute of public health, Statens Institut for Folkesundhed.

“The most important results from the report must be that we can see a fall in the number of young people who smoke cigarettes of two percentage points,” said one of the researchers behind the report, Lotus Sofie Bast.

“On the other hand, we see a rise in overall consumption – the amount of young people who use at least one tobacco or nicotine-related product has actually increased since last year from 27 to 28.6 percent,” she said.

Higher prices on cigarettes
The researcher points to the higher prices of cigarettes as part of the explanation for the change in young peoples’ habits.

“Some of what has happened over the last year is that the price of cigarettes increased from April 1,” Bast said.

The report will be an annual examination of young people’s tobacco and nicotine habits. In the coming years, researchers hope to monitor the effect of newer measures like higher cigarette prices, standardised tobacco packaging and products hidden behind the counter.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”