Tobacco Cessation Biography
The "new" smokeless tobacco products
The smokeless tobacco companies are increasingly moving their marketing and advertising dollars to the new "tea bag" type of smokeless commonly known as snus. There are also a variety of dissolvable tobacco products on the market that resemble breath strips, and others that appear like candy Tic Tac's. Of these last two, we know very little about their health consequences as you are ingesting the tobacco product completely. Long-term studies on their safety do not exist, but because of the lack of regulation they are already being sold in the marketplace. These are very different products than conventional loose leaf spit tobaccos that we have been discussing. OCF is still against snus for a variety of reasons and the jury is out on the safety of the actual US manufactured products, which appear to not be exactly the same as those from overseas. We believe that there is evidence that it is safer than old style spit tobacco, but it is not harmless, though likely much less of a risk in our area of concern, oral cancer, than the previous incarnations of smokeless. In December of 2009, we will put up a page dedicated to the new generation of smokeless, the marketing rhetoric, the paid medical shills for the products, and more. At this time there is evidence that it is less harmful than combustion based tobacco use. BUT THERE IS NOT CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE THAT IT IS HARM FREE. And we are unconvinced that it is designed as a harm reduction product by the manufacturing companies given the viral marketing of it to our youth on the web. These customers that are rapidly becoming an addicted, profit center for the smokeless tobacco companies, are not inveterate, "I can't quit" cigarette smokers as they would have us believe the market is for the product. We are more convinced that it is a product that will coexist with cigarettes in smokers who continue to smoke where they can, and will use these new smokeless products in workplaces, theaters, etc. where smoking is prohibited. One will not replace the other. It is market expansion, not product replacement. Arguments made by academics on the payroll or supported in other ways by the manufacturers that would have us believe that this is a serious harm reduction strategy are only playing a very well thought out marketing game in our opinion. More to follow in 2010 as OCF develops a science based opinion paper on these new smokeless products.
New research from The Department of Environmental Medicine at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet demonstrates that users of Swedish smokeless tobacco called 'snus' run a higher risk of dying from cardiac arrest and stroke. Although the study did not show an increased risk of snus use and [incidence of] myocardial infarction, it did show a 30 per cent increased risk of fatal heart attack compared with people who have never used the product. Amongst those who suffer non-fatal heart attacks, users of snus have a higher fatality rate in general than non-users, and from cardiovascular diseases in particular.
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