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• Snuffing out smokes 

Freddie Edlund started snusing when he was 7. . . . Edlund, now 29, has been a daily and enthusiastic user of snus, a pouch tobaccThe bottom line, according to Ramstrom, is that while snus cannot be described as a healthy product, its use in Sweden has reduced smoking among males, lowered the risk of associated cancers and produced an overall public health benefit. o product that in little more than a generation has radically transformed the tobacco consumption habits of Swedish men and, according to a growing stack of medical research, has significantly lowered their risk of smoking-related diseases.

The popularity of snus in Sweden has kindled a debate among public health officials here and elsewhere in Europe about whether snus should be encouraged as a safer alternative to smoking, or discouraged as just another harmfully addictive tobacco product. . .

The bottom line, according to Ramstrom, is that while snus cannot be described as a healthy product, its use in Sweden has reduced smoking among males, lowered the risk of associated cancers and produced an overall public health benefit.

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The trouble is, if we say that snus is less harmful than cigarettes, it is perceived as being a little less harmful. In reality, snus is much less harmful.
Lars Ramstrom, director of the Institute for Tobacco Studies in Stockholm.

Snus is less dangerous than cigarettes, for sure, but it is very hard to find anything more dangerous than cigarettes. . . . [T]here is no natural law that says 30 percent of the population should be nicotine addicts.
Goran Pershagen, a professor of environmental hygiene at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.