Without snuff for days- we languish on this island.

This proverb- or citate comes from one of my favourite authors. Astrid Lindgren. I belive it is taken from the book "Pippi goes to the south sea".

Swedish "snuff"- which is NOT snuff at all (in the sense of being snuffed up your nose). Instead it is fermented (snus) and seasoned tobacco that you put between your lip and gums as an much healthier alternative to smoking.

The EU don't like it. -Go figures. EU want's people to smoke in stead. Why? Nobody knows! Ask the french?
So Swedish companies- or any others- are forbidden to export this product within the EU, which in it self is a violation of the free treaty laws in the EU.

From "The Local":
The European Commission wants all tobacco products to contain at least 85 percent tobacco, according to documents obtained by the tabloid Aftonbladet.

However, Swedish snus only contains about 50 percent.

"It shows that they do not object to any potential health risks of snus, just to snus," Swedish MEP Christoffer Fjellner told the TT news agency.

The Commission also outlines that snus cannot have added aromas such as herbs or fruits, which it believes makes the product more attractive to young people.

Many Swedish snus manufacturers have added aromas in recent years. General brand snus has bergamot orange flavouring while Göteborgs Rapé has a taste of juniper berries.

Other new types of snus have been introduced recently which feature different types of mint, liquorice and eucalyptus flavours

While snus manufacturers face stricter guidelines on the European market, cigarette makers are going to have an easier time than they previously thought.

The requirement that they sell cigarettes in uniform packaging without company branding has been removed, after the tobacco lobby reacted furiously to the suggestion, reports daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

Instead, the commission wants to add more written warnings alongside off-putting pictures illustrating the risk of smoking on up to two thirds of all packets.

The Swedish government were quick to point out this is not the final version of a directive.

"These are rumours. The Commission hasn't taken a decision about a new directive and the Swedish government has not seen one," said Swedish Minister for Children and the Elderly Maria Larsson in a statement.

She is on her way to Brussels to meet Tonio Borg, the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy.

"I will, however, be bringing up the Swedish view on this during my meeting with Tonia Borg," Larsson said.

TT/The Local/at

So the thingy here is that the EU want's to ban snus because it contains water!
It's not the flavouring- it's the water!