Also note that the tobacco industry stays away from making claims about the safety of spit tobacco products, relying instead on paying or providing lucrative grants to 3rd party investigators, medical professionals, and others to publish materials supporting their desired strategic claims. In our opinion these individuals are nothing more than shills for the industry. This situation exists because the smokeless tobacco makers face a difficult balance in marketing the products. If they tout them as being safer, they face scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, and would have to prove their claims based on clinical trials they now are not required to conduct. These trials would last many years and the likely outcome from them would be disastrous to the tobacco industry as independent documentation of harm would be there for all to see. Not able to talk about harm reduction themselves, to implement their "marketing strategies," it makes sense to pay these professionals, who have documented financial benefit in their medical positions, to be the facilitators of the tobacco agenda. Follow the money yourself. Then decide if you find these medical authorities credible or not. But there is no question that the companies benefit from these third parties creating the dialog in public. The smokeless manufacturers certainly cannot make it themselves. It is a very smart strategy to pay for chairs in harm reduction, and research that finds that everyone changing to smokeless would be of benefit. They know that this scenario is not going to take place in the real world. Smokers will continue to smoke, and use smokeless in environments where smoking is banned. But everyone switching to smokeless tobacco.... no one really believes the smoking population will ever embrace that.
Spit tobacco causes oral cancer by the following process: as tissue cells in these areas divide in an attempt to form a barrier against the tobacco, they are exposed to carcinogenic agents and can become cancerous. Pinpointing how long a spit tobacco user can chew or dip before getting oral cancer is difficult to do since it is impossible to predict when and if cells will become cancerous. Consequently, spit tobacco users risk beginning the process to develop oral cancer every time they use. Spit tobacco can also cause other types of cancers. Exposure to tobacco juice which is not intentionally swallowed may induce cancers of the esophagus, larynx, stomach, pancreas and prostate. Clearly the investigation of all the possible mechanisms of harm, particularly in areas remote from the site of use, are not fully explored as of now, and making the ASSUMPTION based on today's data that spit tobacco is safe, would be foolish.
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
Tobacco Tax
No comments:
Post a Comment