Finland needs a bolder Tobacco Act

The age limit for the sales of nicotine products should be raised.

Nicotine addiction is not a diminishing but a transforming public health problem. The range of nicotine products is expanding, and new generations are being targeted with increasingly attractive and easy-to-use products.

Finland has long been a frontrunner in tobacco control policy. Therefore, it is also necessary to recognise that developments in recent years have in part gone in the wrong direction. The liberalisation of the sale of nicotine pouches and the rapid increase in their use, especially among young people, have meant a step backwards in relation to the objective of the Tobacco Act – the end of the use of harmful and addictive products.

An amendment to the Tobacco Act is currently under preparation in Finland, which will bring long-awaited improvements for housing communities to prevent and reduce the exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Alongside such individual corrections, however, solutions are needed that clearly support the long-term objective of the Act.

International examples show that ambitious solutions focusing on product supply and retail are possible. The United Kingdom has just adopted a historic law aiming at a smoke-free generation, in which the sale of tobacco was prohibited for those born in year 2009 or later. In different countries, commitments have also been made, for example, to gradually reduce points of sale, or to ban the sale of products that strongly attract especially young people, such as nicotine pouches or disposable e-cigarettes (vapes).

In Finland as well, a ban on the sale of tobacco to younger generations has recently been proposed. However, from the perspective of the objective of the Tobacco Act and the effectiveness of age-limit enforcement, it would be clearest to extend the same principle comprehensively to various nicotine products subject to the Tobacco Act. A widely supported first step already during this government term would be to raise the age limit to 20 years, as few people start using tobacco or nicotine products after the age of 20. It would be a concrete, easily implementable, and forward-looking measure – one by which Finland could once again be known as a frontrunner.