Tobacco.org

Manufacturer claims new tobacco product encourages harm reduction  

Imperial Tobacco Canada is selling a new smokeless tobacco product in Canada, advocating its use as part of a harm reduction response to nicotine addiction.

Snus, which rhymes with "loose," is an oral tobacco packaged in small sachets that look like tea bags, although it can also be sold loose. Users place a sachet under their upper lip and absorb the nicotine through their mucous membranes. Unlike other forms of oral tobacco, users don't spit or chew it. The ground tobacco is pasteurized, which the manufacturer says reduces the amount of tobacco-specific nitrosamines it contains. . . .

Critics don't dispute that snus is less harmful than smoking, but point out that the product carries its own risks. "There is nothing you can do as dangerous as smoking," says Dr. Goran Boëthius, chair of Doctors Against Tobacco. "But there are effects that are serious enough," that result from snus use, including increased risk of pancreatic cancer, heart attack and stroke.

Other critics question whether the availability of snus will actually reduce smoking rates.

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