According to statistics, only 6 per cent of the Swedish population smokes, give or take a little depending on education and place of residence. Whichever way you look at it, this is much lower than in the rest of the EU. Nevertheless, nicotine use is as widespread here as in other countries. Why is this and what kind of nicotine products do Swedes actually use? This is the first instalment in a series of portraits of Swedes who no longer smoke.
First up is Björn Åslander, 59-year-old vejpare from Hallsberg.
- UIn the spring of 2023, the Vejpkollen with Convenience Stores Sweden News to depict Swedish nicotine consumption, bortom statistics. This report is a slightly modified version of the original report which was published in CSS News. -
The first time we met, he was angry as a bee. I was working behind the counter in a vejp shop in Gothenburg and Björn Åslander almost fell through the door, fleeing an unusually angry rain. He had been vejping for almost a year at that point. It was no walk in the park. The coil kept burning, the tank was leaking and didn't the e-juice suddenly taste a bit different?
"They haven't gone and changed the recipe, have they? It doesn't taste as it should. It just pisses me off! Why do they have to do this?" Björn muttered as he stood dripping at the checkout counter.
That's the way it was. After that we met once a month. Built a relationship that revolved around vejping, problem solving, non-smoking, different flavours. And a lot of politics.
This is his story. 8 years later.
Forest, house and shepherd
When we first met on that rainy day in 2016, he was working at a printing company in Gothenburg. Today, Björn Åslander is a trained bus driver and has moved to Hallsberg in central Sweden. There is still a bit of winter in the air when we meet in the little red cottage that Björn rents with his partner Therese, a few kilometres south of Hallsberg. He has already turned 59 when we get out of the car, in the middle of the forest where the couple's German shepherd runs around collecting sticks.
"She's crazy about sticks, completely manic," says Björn, puffing on his relatively large e-cigarette on the veranda. A cloud creeps in between the bushes.
My father smoked a cigar
He started smoking cigarettes early. It was in the 1970s. Dad smoked cigars, mum didn't smoke at all. A fairly normal Swedish home, but far from a smoking family," says Björn.
"Dad smoked cigars a few times a month, but no more. I had started to smoke a little bit on the sly and he caught me, I think it was the neighbour gossiping. Then he forced me to smoke a whole cigar in the toilet. Damn, I coughed and vomited. He really didn't want me to start smoking."
I ask if it worked. Björn laughs.
“Nä, det gjorde det verkligen inte. Jag minns inte exakt, men jag rökte regelbundet redan i 7:an. Köpte de där små paketen, Glen, hette de väl redan då? Det var jag och några kompisar som höll på. Några snusade också. Kommer ihåg en kille, Jan Johansson, som snodde en dosa på ICA och åkte fast. Han var den där coola killen på moppen, utan hjälm och en cigg i mungipan”
“Hörde till det goda i livet”
Björn describes smoking as an important part of socialising. His friends smoked in the smoking area at school. Later in life, they would meet and have a cigarette during breaks at work.
"I was never a pub-goer, but I used to meet friends at a café after work. Then we chilled. And had a cigarette, of course. It was one of the good things in life, at that time."
Painters, printers, smokers
At the time of our interview, he had just completed his training as a bus driver and had recently moved to Hallsberg, where his partner Therese has her roots. But he was born in Stockholm 59 years ago and moved to Gothenburg in the mid-1980s. Smoking has stayed with him and he has worked in many professions, ranging from printing to painting with his own company.
“När det gäller rökningen tänker jag mycket på det jag upplevde som målare. Jag fick vara med om att sanera många lägenheter där någon rökt cigaretter i decennier. Rökpartiklarna sätter sig djupt i väggarna. Fläckarna är knepiga att täcka, för att inte tala om lukten, den är väldigt svår att få bort. Bra jobb för en målare, i och för sig, särskilt om man får betalt per timme, skrockar han.
But then it gets a bit serious again.
“Tänk att man dragit in det där i lungorna under så många år”
No thought of quitting
"He had no intention of giving up smoking," he says. That it turned out that way was mostly a coincidence. He smoked more than a pack a day, basically every day since the age of 15.
"A woman working as a trainee at the printing company where I was employed turned up one day with an e-cig. It turned out that neither she nor her husband, whom I knew slightly, had smoked for a few months. They had each bought an e-cig instead. She stopped by our house later. Me and Therese, who also smoked (her partner, ed. note) became curious and started to check out what it was. Then I was sold," he laughs.
A lot of experimentation
At that time, in 2015, few e-cigarettes were available outside specialised shops. It was only when disposable models became popular that e-cigarettes appeared in every single convenience store.
“Det var lite krångligt att förstå hur det fungerade med e-vätska och olika apparater. Men jag fastnade för det. Det är viktigt att få bra hjälp. I vissa butiker försökte de pracka på en vad som helst, antingen något onödigt dyrt eller e-vätska med alldeles för hög, eller för låg nikotinstyrka. Det blev en del experimenterande i början innan jag hittade rätt”
“Nya modeller hela tiden”
He has a whole box of different vejp devices in a cupboard in the kitchen. Some new, some older. Even an Iqos - a variant of an e-cig that vaporises tobacco instead of e-liquid. He picks up some old tanks. Favourites that cannot be used anymore - not because they are worn out - but because spare parts are not available.
“Det jobbiga med e-cigg är att det kommer nya modeller hela tiden. Delar som man behöver byta, som coils och glas till tankarna, slutar produceras och då står man där. För mig kan det ta tid att hitta något nytt som passar mitt sätt att vejpa” säger Björn Åslander.
“Väldigt kräsen på smaken”
Today he uses several models in parallel. A high-power device that produces large clouds during the day. A small version, a so-called pod system, at home in the evenings.
“Om jag vejpar med den stora maskinen under en brandvarnare, och ja, det har hänt, då går larmet. Inte bra” skrattar han. “Däremot händer det inte när jag kör med lilla podsystemet. Det är mer som att röka en cigg i känslan, mer nikotin men mindre ånga”
Vid sidan av själva apparaten är smaken i e-vätskan “extremt viktig”, konstaterar han.
“Ja, herregud. Jag är väldigt kräsen. Det måste vara mycket smak. Och jag vill att det ska påminna om rök också. Åtminstone lite grann”
The same e-juice for many years
E-juice, whether it comes in a large vejp or disposable model, is made up of the same ingredients. Glycerine and propylene glycol. And flavours and nicotine, of course. Tobacco flavours are actually the collective name for a range of different flavours. Some are more like chocolate or vanilla, while others have profiles like liquorice or crackers. Once Björn found a flavour from a local producer in Uddevalla, he has stuck to it. For many, many years.
“Jag har testat andra smaker också, men det fungerar inte. Engångsmodeller finns överallt nuförtiden och jag har givetvis testat några. Mitt problem med den är att de är så himla söta. Och att många smakar som godis. Det kanske fungerar för en dag. Men sen blir jag trött på det” säger han och medger att han nyligen hittat en söt fruktsmak som han gillar bättre i det lilla poddsystem som han använder på kvällarna.
"But it turns out that that particular e-juice was hard to get in Sweden, typical, somehow," he laughs.
The debate on nicotine
Ever since e-cigarettes appeared on the market, almost 20 years ago, the technology has been a source of debate. After all, it is about nicotine - an addictive substance that is inextricably linked to smoking. Smoking a packet a day for 40 years increases the risk of a range of life-threatening diseases. Burning tobacco and smoking it means inhaling thousands of dangerous substances, in particular soot particles and carbon monoxide. At the same time, cigarettes are one of the world's best-selling products.
A fraction of the toxicity
Den moderna e-cigaretten skapades av en rökare, en kinesisk farmaceut (apotekare) som ville hitta ett sätt att inhalera nikotin utan att bränna tobak. Han löste det genom att hetta upp glycerin och propylenglykol med tillsatt nikotin. Nikotinet var detsamma som i beprövade nikotinläkemedel, han var ju trots allt verksam inom läkemedelsbranschen, och resultatet blev en batteridriven förångare, en “vejp” efter engelskan “vaporizer”, som hettar upp en så kallad e-vätska till cirka 250 grader. Ångan visade sig innehålla en bråkdel av de giftiga ämnen som finns i cigarettrök, och inget spår av varken kolmonoxid (som orsakar hjärt-kärlsjukdomar) eller sotpartiklar (som orsakar cancer och KOL). Rökare verkade dessutom gilla att använda tekniken.
Difficulty with information
The problem of smoking solved, right? No, not really.
Despite the technology being classed as a much safer way to use nicotine than smoking, the debate between researchers, interest groups and an established tobacco control apparatus has been raging for almost 20 years. As a result, the most basic information on the risks of e-cigarettes versus cigarettes is difficult to access today, to say the least.
This is particularly true for smokers.
Discussions in the smokebox
Björn often encounters irritation and even aggressive comments, he says. Not infrequently in the smoking areas. From smokers.
“Jaha, där står du och andas in kemikalier. Det är ju livsfarligt, jag har hört att det är värre än cigg…”. Det får jag höra ofta. Och de som säger det RÖKER som borstbindare. Jag blir tokig på sånt. Man får förklara vad vejpning är och vad skillnaden är. Men det är inte lätt när man står där i vild diskussion och har fem minuter på sig” säger Björn Åslander.
Reducing risks - but few know it
According to studies in the UK and the US (and to some extent in Sweden), knowledge about e-cigarettes is rarely based on actual evidence. According to the British health authorities, who have summarised the research on e-cigarettes since 2015, vejpning, whether it is a single-use model or a larger device, reduces the risk of nicotine addiction by almost 95 per cent for smokers. However, in statistical surveys, many smokers, close to 50 per cent, currently believe that using e-cigarettes is as or more harmful than smoking cigarettes.
“Kunde andas normalt igen”
E-cigarettes and vejping simply evoke emotions. Björn Åslander thinks the whole discussion on e-cigarettes has been distorted.
“Det blir frustrerande att höra allt strunt hela tiden. När någon organisation sprider skräckpropaganda om att det finns risker och att vi “inte vet” tillräckligt. Jag vet ju hur min hälsa förändrades från det att jag bytte ciggen mot min vejp. Jag kunde andas normalt igen. Mina läkare märkte det också, när vi jämförde mina spirometritagningar mellan åren. Enorm skillnad. Då spelar det ingen roll vad andra påstår, eller försöker “bevisa” säger Björn.
“Kommer inte att röka igen”
After all, he believes that e-cigarettes will replace cigarettes even in tobacco shops. At least in the not too distant future.
“Det är ju knappt någon som röker längre. Såna som jag, som kanske inte brydde sig så mycket om sin hälsa, hittar andra sätt att få i sig nikotinet. Ungdomarna på mopeder också. Jag luktar inte rök längre, stör ingen annan – det gör det mer accepterat. Jag tycker, konstigt nog, fortfarande att röken från cigg kan lukta gott och jag brukar ta ett bloss på då och då. Men det är det som är grejen här, det ger mig ingenting längre, inga smaker, ingenting. Jag kommer inte att röka igen, det vet jag.” säger Björn Åslander och blåser ett litet moln som blandas med det bygynnande regnet i skogarna söder om Hallsberg.
