You might think, like many people do, that smokeless tobacco products are safe alternatives to cigarettes. Wrong. According to researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, smokeless tobacco users are exposed to higher amounts of carcinogenic molecules than cigarette smokers. In a study of 182 users of chewing tobacco or oral snuff and 420 cigarette smokers, they found snuff users were exposed to higher levels of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) than smokers. NNK is a human carcinogen known to produce lung cancer. In laboratory animals, it also contributes to cancers of the pancreas, nasal mucosa, and liver.
Published in the August issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, this study serves to remind us that there is only one safe alternative to smoking -- not smoking.
1. The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars on advertising and promotion to increase their customer base, and if that weren’t enough they are now developing and marketing new tobacco products such as ‘light’ cigarettes, ‘reduced risk’ cigarettes and smokeless tobacco (SNUs) to gain new customers. Through these products, the tobacco industry is trying to create the perception of safer tobacco use. The industry is trying to fool the consumer into believing there is a safer cigarette to address the growing concern over the health effects of smoking. These tactics are dangerous and diminish prevention and cessation efforts of the tobacco control community.
As a public health professional I am concerned about the growing tobacco epidemic and want to work to dispel the myth of ‘safer’ tobacco.
Working in tobacco control we may not have the money the tobacco industry has but we have the truth. If you are looking for more information on the truth about new tobacco products or on tobacco control you can find it at the website Global Tobacco Control: Learning from the Experts (www.globaltobaccocontrol.org). This website provides free online lectures on tobacco control presented by subject experts from around the world
Posted at 11:30AM on Aug 20th 2007 by Maggie