Guest Author: Niels Them Kjær, Chief Consultant, Danish Cancer Society
After several months of planning, nine Danish organizations launched their tobacco endgame vision on September 10, 2025, with the ambition of setting an end date – 2035 – for the sale of tobacco and nicotine in Denmark. We placed full page advertisements in the major Danish newspapers throughout the week to highlight our open letter to our politicians:
Dear Politicians,
Our children and young people deserve to grow up in a society free from smoke and nicotine.
For too long, harmful products have made people sick. Every year, 16,000 Danes lose their lives to tobacco-related diseases. And every single day, young people become addicted to nicotine.
That is the reality. But it does not have to be the future.
Now is the time to take a bold and ambitious step towards a future without tobacco and nicotine. If it’s up to us, tobacco and nicotine will no longer be sold as consumer products after 2035.
We need to do it for our children.
This was the first time Danish organizations said loud and clear that we want a ban on sales of tobacco and nicotine products. The Danish Cancer Society decided on this endgame goal half a year ago and gathered the support of the Danish Heart Foundation, the Danish Lung Association, the Danish Medical Association, the Danish Dental Association, the Danish Nurses’ Organization, Børns Vilkår (children’s rights) and Danish Seniors.
A recent opinion poll showed that 50% of the Danish population supports a ban on tobacco and nicotine sales beginning 2035, 34% are against it and 16% haven’t decided on the question. We informed our Minister of Health, the members of the standing committee on health and Danish Broadcasting Corporation (Denmark’s largest electronic media enterprise) beforehand.
Our Minister of Health, Sophie Løhde, said that it will be impossible to implement a sales ban because of the market rules within the European Union and that we need to have an updated Tobacco Products Directive in the EU. But she didn’t just rule out the proposal. Other politicians said that we can raise the age limit to 25 years, raise taxes etc. instead.
Read the key media coverage in Altinget>
We participated in several TV and radio news programs throughout the day. Of course, some people were against the proposal. Some said it was impossible because people who smoke would either buy cigarettes illegally or cross the border and buy in other European countries. Others think adults should keep the “free choice” to buy tobacco or nicotine and take the risk of becoming addicted and sick. But a lot of people gave their support and hopefully the support will grow in the coming years.