Like most industrialized countries, smoking in Finland has dropped in recent decades. But the Scandinavian country is about to go one step further: Officials plan to make the country tobacco-free by 2040. That means that in less than 25 years they want more than 98 percent of the Finnish population saying ‘no’ to cigarettes.
One way to reach that goal will be by placing higher taxes on tobacco. Finland wants to make smoking more expensive, hoping that more people will no longer be able to afford to smoke.
But Finland will also now start making smoking more expensive not just for smokers, but for vendors selling tobacco products. So, in the near future, if you want to sell tobacco in Finland, you are going to have to pay a relatively high fee. Any business wanting to sell tobacco must first apply and pay for a license, but an additional fee must be paid annually to cover the costs of surveillance officers in each municipality who will check that retailers are following the rules. It is the surveillance fee that will be the real turn-off as this is calculated in any business to be as high as $536 annually per checkout.
Another unique approach Finland will start implementing this month is to ban people from smoking on their balconies if that disturbs their neighbors. If smoke is seen to be spreading from someone’s private balcony and onto other spaces, a fine could be forthcoming.
Finnish residents are also no longer allowed to smoke in private cars if people under the age of 15 are present.
This ban in private places is unheard of in the Middle East, for example. There are countries in the Arab world where you can smoke in hospital wards, heart clinics, government offices, classrooms and public transportation.
In the Middle East, where awareness levels remain low and smoking remains dangerously prevalent, little effort has been made to combat smoking of cigarettes and also water pipes, so popular in the Arab world across gender and age groups.
Although there are no precise figures on the number of smokers in the region, it seems smoking is more prevalent than ever in the Middle East because the Middle East can be a stressful place. In countries where there is high unemployment, a high cost of living and exorbitant costs of marriage and raising children, it’s easy to start smoking and more difficult to kick the habit. Smoking would be the most natural thing in the world if your daily life were one of evading bullets and bombs, if your country was in political upheaval, or in all-out war or if it was occupied by a foreign power.
Living such a life is abnormal. A much more normal country like Finland can focus on the little things, like limiting the purchase of products that imitate tobacco or cigarettes, such as sweets and chocolates shaped as pipes or cigarettes.
Finland wants to rid itself of anything related to smoking. As of last August, e-cigarettes had the same restrictions in terms of sales and public use as regular cigarettes, such as age limits, and they are no longer allowed to have any flavors. In Finland there will be no such thing as less harmful products. Snuff and other forms of smokeless tobacco, cigars and pipes are out. The reasoning is that promoting other products will result in a new addiction for health officials to deal with in the future.
In the stressful Arab world, where there is also a lack of government commitment, where there is no ban on the sale of tobacco below a certain age, banning tobacco companies from sponsoring sports and cultural events would be an achievement.
