Types of products used
- Traditional cigarettes are still, by far, the tobacco product most used by smokers in Switzerland.
- In 2016, 0.4% of the Swiss population age 15 and up smoked electronic cigarettes (ENDS) daily, and 0.8% of 20- to 24-year-olds and 0.6% of 25- to 34-year-olds respectively used heated tobacco products (HTP) daily.
- The absence of recent data related to the use of ENDS (and particularly the total absence of data relating to the use of next-generation ENDS such as Puff Bars, etc.) and of HTP products makes it impossible to get an accurate picture of the types of tobacco products currently in use in Switzerland.
- Among the youngest smokers, the water pipe appears to be very popular.
Traditional cigarettes remain by far the most commonly-used tobacco product in Switzerland, independent of any consideration of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) or electronic cigarettes or heated tobacco products (HTP) or other smokeless tobacco products (for a detailed description of these different products, see also our page Products).
Cigarettes are still popular
Data from the 2017 Swiss health survey show that cigarettes are still the flagship of tobacco use in Switzerland: 96.0% of women smokers and 84.1% of the men use tobacco mainly or only in this form (OFS, 2020[1]). In the background, other tobacco products appear to be fairly marginal, with 8.4% of smokers reporting smoking cigars, 7.3% using water pipes (chicha or bong type), 6.5% smoking cigarillos, 3.6% using electronic cigarettes with nicotine, 2.7% electronic cigarettes without nicotine, 2.5% smoking pipes and finally, 1.7% using IQOS-type heated tobacco products (Figure A1A-9). The distribution of use of these different products varies, overall, only slightly between men and women, except for the fact that cigars, cigarillos and pipes are clearly used less often by women than by men. It should also be noted that a very large majority – 82% - of smokers report using only one of these products (OBSAN, 2021[2] [3]) and that 70% of respondents who reported using electronic products “without combustion” (ENDS or HTP) also smoked cigarettes (OFS, 2020[4]).
Figure A1A-9 – Distribution of tobacco products used across all smokers (%), total and by age, ESS 2017 (Source OBSAN 2021[5]).
Young people and water pipes
Another remarkable observation coming out of the 2017 Swiss health survey is that, while water pipe use reached 7.3% of all smokers surveyed, more than a third – 35% - of male smokers ages 15 to 24 reported using it. This parallels one of the observations from analyses - specifically targeting 15 to 25-year-olds - based on data from the 2016 Monitorage suisse des addictions (Kuendig et al., 2017a[6]). These analyses highlight the great popularity of water pipes among underage smokers. In fact, no less than 39.9% of occasional smokers and 24.9% of daily smokers ages 15-17 reported smoking water pipes (these proportions reaching 46.1% and 21.8% respectively for 18 to 19-year-olds).
Oral tobacco products
The most recent data regarding the use of oral or nasal (sniffable) tobacco products come from the Omnibus “Santé et lifestyle”[7] study, an on-line survey conducted in 2018 by the OFS for the Federal Office of Public health, or FOPH. In this survey, 2.5% of the population used this kind of product (OBSAN, 2021[8]), a proportion comparable to that which was recorded – 2.9% - in 2016 by the last wave of the CoRolAR from the Monitorage suisse des addictions (Gmel et al., 2017). Among the products included in the “Santé et lifestyle” survey, the utilization of sniffing tobacco (1.6%) was significantly higher than that of snus (0.9%) and clearly higher than that of chewing tobacco (0.1%). As for snus, the proportion of users was 0.6% in 2016 as reported in the Monitorage suisse des addictions. This type of use was more typical of men (1.1% of users), German-speaking Swiss (0.8%) and people under 35 (1.5% of 15- to 19-year-olds, 3.3% of 20- to 24-year-olds and 1.4% of 25- to 34-year-olds; Gmel et al., 2017). It must be noted, however, that at the time of these studies, in 2016 and 2018, snus was not yet legally for sale in Switzerland. It has been legal since May 2019 (as are nicotine packets) and it can reasonably be expected that an increase in its use will be seen in future studies.
ENDS: an ever-changing phenomenon with little data available
According to the 2017 Swiss health survey, 3.6% of smokers used – alone or in combination with other tobacco products – electronic cigarettes with nicotine, and 2.7% used electronic cigarettes without nicotine (Figure A1A-9; OFS, 2020[9]). More specifically, the use of electronic cigarettes with nicotine involved 3.1% of women smokers and 4.0% of men smokers (the use of electronic cigarettes without nicotine was 2.3% for women and 3.1% for men respectively; OBSAN, 2021[10]). It should also be noted that the legal context and the market for ENDS has changed greatly since the last ESS survey. In particular, the sale of nicotine-containing liquids was not yet legal in 2017 (only their importation by individuals was legal) and next-generation products such as Juul and Puff bars were not yet available in Switzerland.
The CoRolAR study from the Monitorage suisse des addictions offers a complementary viewpoint to that given by the ESS by investigating the experimentation with and use of electronic cigarettes independently from smoking (Kuendig et al., 2017b[11]). In 2016, while the proportion of 15-year-olds and over having used e-cigarettes at least once was 15.3% (“experimentation”), the proportion of people who used in the 30 days preceding the study was 1.6% (Figure A1A-10). At that time, men, people under 35, and smokers were those most likely to experiment with e-cigarettes.
Figure A1A-10 – Use of ENDS in the general population (%), total and according to sex, age, and smoking status, CoRolAR 2016 (Source Kuendig et a., 2017b[12]).
Overall, based on data from the 2016 Monitorage suisse des addictions, 0.7% of the population age 15 and up used electronic cigarettes weekly, and 0.4% used them daily. The prevalence of daily use reached a maximum of 2.4% among daily tobacco smokers and 0.4% of ex-smokers. The 35-44 (0.9%) and 25-34 (0.6%) age groups were the most likely to be using them daily. Finally, it is interesting to note that the data collected in this survey suggested that after having progressed steadily between 2013 and 2014, the daily, weekly, and 30-day use of electronic cigarettes remained stable in Switzerland up until the end of 2016.
Heated tobacco products
While the 2017 Swiss health survey showed that 1.7% of smokers (1.5% of women and 1.8% of men) used – alone or in combination with other tobacco products – IQOS-type heated tobacco products (Figure A1A-9; OBSAN 2021[13]), the data from the 2016 Monitorage suisse des addictions reveal, for their part, that 2.0% of the population age 15 and up had already used this type of product, including 0.5% in the 30 days preceding the study (Kuendig et al., 2017b[14]). Out of the total population, those who used daily were still a small percentage – 0.2% – but this represented 0.8% of 20-24-year-olds and 0.6% of 25-34-year-olds. Considering on the one hand the fact that IQOS-type heated tobacco products were only very recently for sale at the time of the survey, and on the other hand the relatively stable level of the “e-cigarette” phenomenon in the last few years of the Monitorage suisse des addictions (as previously described), these figures appear to suggest that HTPs may be starting to compete with ENDS (on this subject, see also the description of the HTP market on our page Heated tobacco products (HTP)).
[1] OFS (2020) : Actualité OFS - Enquête suisse sur la santé 2017 – Consommation de tabac en suisse. OFS. Neuchâtel. Download.
[2] https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/fr/indicator/monam/tabac-produits-fumes-age-15; accessed 30.12.2021.
[3] https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/fr/indicator/monam/tabac-produits-fumes-age-15; accessed 30.12.2021.
[4] OFS (2020) : Actualité OFS - Enquête suisse sur la santé 2017 – Consommation de tabac en suisse. OFS. Neuchâtel. Download.
[5] https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/fr/indicator/monam/tabac-produits-fumes-age-15; accessed 30.12.2021.
[6] Kuendig, Hervé ; Notari, Luca ; Gmel, Gerhard (2017a) : Le tabagisme chez les 15 à 25 ans en 2016 - Analyse des données 2016 du Monitorage suisse des addictions. Addiction Suisse. Lausanne. Download.
[7] https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/fr/home/das-bag/ressortforschung-evaluation/forschung-im-bag/forschung-nichtuebertragbare-krankheiten/monitoring-systemncd/erhebung-gesundheit-lifestyle.html; accessed 28.12.2021.
[8] https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/fr/indicator/monam/tabac-produits-sans-fumee-age-15; accessed 28.12.2021.
[9] OFS (2020) : Actualité OFS - Enquête suisse sur la santé 2017 – Consommation de tabac en suisse. OFS. Neuchâtel. Download.
[10] https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/fr/indicator/monam/tabac-produits-fumes-age-15; accessed 30.12.2021.
[11] Kuendig, Hervé ; Notari, Luca ; Gmel, Gerhard (2017b) : Cigarette électronique et autres produits du tabac de nouvelle génération en Suisse en 2016 - Analyse des données du Monitorage suisse des addictions. Addiction Suisse. Lausanne. Download.
[12] Kuendig, Hervé ; Notari, Luca ; Gmel, Gerhard (2017b) : Cigarette électronique et autres produits du tabac de nouvelle génération en Suisse en 2016 - Analyse des données du Monitorage suisse des addictions. Sucht Schweiz. Lausanne. Download.
[13] https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/fr/indicator/monam/tabac-produits-fumes-age-15; accessed 30.12.2021.
[14] Kuendig, Hervé ; Notari, Luca ; Gmel, Gerhard (2017b) : Cigarette électronique et autres produits du tabac de nouvelle génération en Suisse en 2016 - Analyse des données du Monitorage suisse des addictions. Addiction Suisse. Lausanne. Download.
AT Switzerland, September 2022