Sweden to fight ban on tobacco tea bags

Sweden is fighting to end a European ban on "snus", a moist tobacco popular across Scandinavia that is sucked rather than chewed or smoked. The tea bag-like pouches are placed under the user's lip and quickly deliver a nicotine rush to the blood and a strong salt and herbs flavour in the mouth. While cigarette sales have tumbled by 50 per cent in Sweden over the past 30 years, snus is on the up, with sales rising from 2,500 tonnes a year in the 1970s to almost 7,500 tonnes last year. Sweden is the only EU member state where sales are permitted after it obtained an exemption when the European Union banned snus in 1992. Ewa Bjoerling, Sweden's trade minister, said the ban was discriminatory as other forms of "oral" tobacco were allowed. But health experts have warned consuming tobacco in this way is dangerous and highly addictive - Telegraph