Another municipality has decided to ban its staff from using nicotine, including snus, during working hours. The newspaper Göteborgs-Posten reports. According to the local council, the policy applies to teachers and school staff who are supposed to be "role models" by not showing that they use nicotine. Recently, the Mariestad municipality through a similar policy.
"It's not just going too far when it comes to personal privacy and tinkering with laws governing what counts as working time and what doesn't. It's about political will not being hung like placards on municipal staff," says Karl-Åke Johansson, spokesperson for the organisation Svenska Vejpare, which supports people who use smoke-free nicotine in Sweden.
Despite the fact that the investigation "Growing up safely without nicotine, alcohol and nitrous oxide" proposed so-called 'nicotine-free school hours', the proposal has been more or less shelved in the year since the report was published.
Illegal to control
Criticism of the proposal came mainly from various teachers' organisations, municipal cooperation bodies and legal institutions. It was felt that a ban on nicotine use (whether smoking, vejping or snus) would be a major intrusion on personal freedom, would be very difficult to enforce, and that any controls would take time away from other more important tasks. Several also pointed out that, after all, it is perfectly legal for anyone over 18 to buy nicotine products. The law also leaves no room for 'looking under the lip' or forcing an employee or student to take a test that would reveal nicotine in their blood.
Want to de-normalise use
At the same time, the proposal was supported by several interest organisations and think tanks. They argued that any measures to de-normalise the use of commercial nicotine in society are ok, regardless of interference with personal freedom. Several were of the opinion that the only products allowed should be nicotine medicines, which are currently only sold through pharmaceutical companies.
Has gone backwards
Karl-Åke Johansson suspects that these particular organisations have invested quite a lot in getting their cause heard at municipal level. The proposal in Kungsbacka will also, according to information in GP, from municipal officials.
"There have been campaigns, not least via various medical associations, where people make up all sorts of things about the "unknown" risks of smoke-free nicotine use. They failed at government level when a majority in Parliament chose a different approach to nicotine. The Riksdag wanted harm minimisation instead and saw opportunities with a market where use shifts from cigarettes to snus and e-cigs," he tells Vejpkollen.
"A balancing act"
According to the councillors of the respective municipalities, they have weighed personal freedom against the "right of children" to a nicotine-free school environment. At the same time, they say they have no objection to staff using smokeless nicotine.
"We understand that it is a balancing act between protecting the personal freedom of our employees versus ensuring a nicotine-free environment for our children and students. And in this case, the children's perspective has weighed more heavily," says Kungsbacka municipal councillor Emanuel Forsell (m) to GP.
Not good enough role models?
Kungsbacka will now become the second municipality to introduce policies that identify the use of snus and e-cigarettes as "undesirable behaviour" and, by extension, that users are not considered "good role models". Earlier this year Mariestad introduced a similar ban, but for all municipal employees.
Karl-Åke Johansson says that a policy to, for example, primarily buy electric cars for the municipality's fleet, or to prioritise local milk in the staff canteen, is all well and good. But the nicotine policy is about something completely different.
"The problem with policies like this is that in practice they only reflect the will of politicians. There will be no reprisals if someone is caught with a snuff under their lip, or if they puff on a vejp at break time. It's just symbolic politics. And it's not a good basis for a policy, ever. A waste of time and reputation"
"Hanging political posters on employees"
He is also surprised that in both cases, it is moderate-led municipalities that are introducing "nicotine-free environments".
"I'm a member of the party and have been involved for periods myself. And this is certainly not what I call moderate politics. It's more like something the radical left or the socialists would come up with. It's not just going too far when it comes to personal integrity and tariffs on laws governing what is and is not working time. It's about political will not being hung like placards on municipal staff," he tells Vejpkollen.
"Getting a little scared"
Karl-Åke Johansson believes that decisions to ban nicotine lead to strong reactions, not at least from the parent party.
"What will be the next decision? The municipality forbids all employees to drink coffee during working hours? To save common water resources, it will be forbidden to go to the toilet at work? Once we have crossed the line of making decisions about others, it's a slippery slope to "1984." The fact that my party colleagues don't realise the impossibility of the decision actually scares me a bit." he tells Vejpkollen.
