The drive to regulate - Norway

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  • darkwing
    Member
    • Oct 2007
    • 415

    The drive to regulate - Norway

    « Another Brick in the Wall
    Can ’snus’ create cancer?
    Yes, at least if it’s up to the Norwegian minister of health, Sylvia Brustad. Now she wants to label the snus-packs with cancer warnings according to Norway’s biggest newspaper. The article says that various anti-tobacco organizations agrees with her, and that snus-use have increased quite rapidly in later years. However, the article says nothing on wether snus increases the possibility of cancer or not.

    A quick search results in this article (DinSide.no). Yes, snus can double the possibility of cancer in the pancreas. Quite serious. This now means that 8 of 10 000 people among snusers will get pancreas cancer, instead of 4 of 10 000 wich is the norm.

    Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 12:42 pm | English, Seriousness | RSS 2.0 for comments | Trackback URL
  • Soft Morning, City!
    Member
    • Sep 2007
    • 772

    #2
    Cancer warnings on snus? What an odd idea. I can see the general health warning, because it's only right that people should be aware of the fact that snus is addictive. But labels that specifically warn of cancer risk? Ridiculous.

    However, even if they started putting cancer warnings on snus, I don't think it'll make much of a difference. I don't think the sales will drop by much.

    Comment

    • mwood72

      #3
      That would be implying that Snus is almost as dangerous as cigarettes which is IMO ridiculous from what I've read. To me the evidence of the grave dangers of cigarettes is quite clear and warrents the health warnings but not Snus. If you're going to use Nicotine you should be encouraged to use safer delivery devices such as Snus, not brainwashed into thinking it makes no difference whether you smoke or Snus.

      I guess if if they were to go down that line they could put a "causes cancer" warning on alcohol too as that "can" cause cancer along with a lot of other things I would suspect. Maybe also "this food product can damage your health and is addicitve on" fast food

      Comment

      • Soft Morning, City!
        Member
        • Sep 2007
        • 772

        #4
        Putting warnings on fast food makes a lot more sense than putting cancer warnings on Swedish snus. Good call, mwood.

        Here in the United States, I've noticed that a good number of people seem to think that smokeless tobacco and cigarettes carry the same level of risk. This is utterly ridiculous. Even with the rather high levels of TSNAs in American smokeless, it still has to be far less harmful that smoking. For instance, my friend's grandfather is 86 years old and has chewed Red Man since the age of 17. Sure, his teeth are permanently stained a strange shade of orange-brown and from what I'm told he's had a few scares in regards to sores in his mouth, but he's still alive and apparently cancer free.

        I think one exception to the rule would have to be that stuff from India called gutka. The cancer risk seems incredibly high with that stuff. But otherwise, even American chew has to be safer than any cigarette currently on the market.

        Comment

        • Z480
          Member
          • Mar 2008
          • 20

          #5
          I remember being taught in school that smokeless tobacco was WORSE than cigarettes. To this day, I still have no idea what the probability of getting cancer from dipping is.

          I seem to remember that cigarette smoking has about a 14% chance of causing lung cancer, though, which is 350x higher than the 0.04% chance of snus causing pancreatic cancer (meaning a snuser still has far more to fear from lung cancer, even as a non-smoker). Also, nicotine and carbon monoxide are a BAD combination, and cigarettes kill more people with heart attacks than cancer. Then there's the COPD, emphysema, and other chronic lung diseases that won't directly kill you, but will make your old age much less happy.

          I can certainly see the point in wanting to avoid all tobacco products (and thus nicotine addiction), but claiming that everything is just as bad as the worst possible option is just going to make more people smoke. It's like abstinence-only sex ed: that might be the only guaranteed way to not catch an STD, but in the real world, it's necessary to have other lines of defense as well.

          Comment

          • DraculaViktor
            Member
            • Feb 2008
            • 66

            #6
            Good points all of you. Bad diet, excessive drinking, stress, smoking, too much starchy and processed foods and sugars can create an environment in your body that attracts cancer at a much higher rate than Swedish snus. Nonsense is spewed from the anti-tobacconists' lizard beaks. If lizards had beaks, that is.

            Comment

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