Print

Mail

wiki links

Smokeless tobacco less harmful than cigarettes: 'Lancet'

Smokers looking for a less harmful way to get their nicotine fix should switch to Swedish snus — a smokeless tobacco that puts them at a significantly lower risk of cancer than cigarettes — doctors said in an article posted online yesterday in the Lancet.

Smokers are at least 10 times more likely to get lung cancer than people who use snus, studies showed — a finding that could challenge bans on snus, particularly in the EU.

All EU nations now prohibit snus, except for Sweden, which was granted an exemption because of the widespread use of the product among Swedes. In the US, smokeless tobacco is legal and Swedish snus is being marketed in at least two US cities.

"We should not delay in allowing snus to compete with cigarettes for market share," Jonathan Foulds of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Lynn Kozlowski said in analyzing two studies published in the Lancet.

"The banning or exaggerated opposition to snus in cigarette-rife environments is not sound public health policy," they wrote.

One study tracked the incidence of cancer over among nearly 280,000 Swedish men — some of them snus users, some smokers and some who never used tobacco — over a 20-year period. The other projected the effect on health if snus were introduced in Australia, where it is currently banned.

Swedish snus makers say the production process there is different from similar products in the US, adding that they work hard to remove carcinogens during manufacturing.

But snus is far from harmless; about 30 carcinogens have been found in the smokeless tobacco. In 2004, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice upheld a ban on the substance, ruling that the dangers of snus merited its being outlawed.

However, the two studies show snus may not be as harmful as previously thought, and far less harmful than cigarettes.

International researchers followed 279,897 male Swedish construction workers from 1978 to 1992. About 26 percent were snus users, 37 percent were smokers and the rest never used tobacco.

For smokers, the incidence rate of pancreatic cancer was 13 cases per 100,000. That rate dropped to 8.8 cases per 100,000 for snus users.

Among those who did not use tobacco, the rate was 3.9 cases per 100,000.

However, snus users were twice as likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who had never smoked or used snus.

The study also showed that using snus did not increase the risk of oral cancer, though users might develop mouth lesions where the substance is placed since it generally is tucked inside the upper lip. In addition, using the product can complicate pregnancies.
This story has been viewed 1484 times.