New Smokeless Tobacco Threat Coming Soon to U.S.

One tobacco expert says snus's U.S. debut spells cancer trouble for ex-smokers.

ByABC News
February 9, 2009, 8:14 PM

June 15, 2007 — -- Stop smoking by using smokeless tobacco?

Except for a very vocal minority of tobacco experts, most tobacco researchers would not recommend this.

Nonetheless, with the blessing of this vocal minority, this is exactly what tobacco giant Philip Morris intends to do in August.

This summer Philip Morris will introduce a tobacco product called snus (pronounced, snoose) in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to test market its appeal to adult smokers. And some tobacco experts are applauding this effort.

Snus is a form of tobacco developed in Sweden that seems to be less risky than American smokeless tobacco products such as moist snuff (like Skoal), chewing tobacco (like Red Man) or dried, powdered snuff (Dental, Tube Rose, Peach and other brands).

Using snus for smoking cessation falls under the banner of "harm reduction," and has some support in the field of tobacco control. Such an approach seems appealing: By reducing a smoker's dependence on cigarettes, switching to smokeless tobacco (particularly snus) potentially reduces the risk for a whole host of smoking-related illnesses.

Harm reduction has been used successfully in other addictions: methadone administration for heroin addicts, for example, or clean needle exchanges for injecting drug users.

But residual tobacco-related health risks remain when a smoker quits by using smokeless tobacco, and these risks are not trivial when compared to quitting totally.

Although smokeless tobacco is much less risky than cigarettes, nonetheless mouth cancer and poor oral health definitely occur. There are also studies among large populations that show cardiovascular disease and even death by using this product.

Overall, in terms of cancer, the risk of developing mouth cancer drops from an eight-fold increased risk to a 1.2-fold increase risk when switching from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco. This is an impressive drop, but still leaves a 20 percent increase in mouth cancer risk compared to the use of no tobacco at all.