Snus lumped in with tobacco industry "conspiracy"

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • darkwing
    Member
    • Oct 2007
    • 415

    Snus lumped in with tobacco industry "conspiracy"

    New tobacco products under fire
    by Lisa Watson
    Feb 20, 2008

    Thomas Day/ Medill


    Candy-flavored cigarettes in bright packages, dissolvable tobacco tablets, chemical additives to increase addiction, and clever marketing have helped tobacco companies counter restrictions and declining smoking rates, according to a report released Wednesday.

    These innovations are garnering more support for pending legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration power to regulate the design and marketing of tobacco products.

    There is a "new generation of designer tobacco products,” that is unregulated by the government, said Mary Maryland, incoming president of the Illinois division of the American Cancer Society, at a news conference at the Chicago Children's Museum Wednesday. “Tobacco products come in more forms, flavors, shapes and sizes, with more unproven health claims than ever before, all with the goal of getting kids to smoke and to keep smokers addicted.”

    The report, “Big Tobacco’s Guinea Pigs: How an Unregulated Industry Experiments on America’s Kids and Consumers,” details trends in the tobacco industry designed to attract new users and keep old ones.

    Issued by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the report documents additions that cigarette companies make to tobacco to encourage new users and discourage current users from quitting:

    New smokeless products, such as dissolvable tobacco tablets, are promoted as a way to get a nicotine “fix” in places where smoking is prohibited. Camel Snus and Marlboro Snus are the newest examples, currently in test markets around the United States.


    Flavorings mask the harshness of smoking, making it easier for new smokers to become accustomed to the taste, but often introduce added carcinogens. Flavors such as lime, mint, strawberry, pineapple and vanilla are likely to appeal to young smokers, Maryland said.


    Added ammonia converts the nicotine in cigarette smoke into its “freebase” form. In other drugs, such as cocaine, the freebase form is recognized as more addictive because it reaches the brain more quickly. This technique may have been more important than the Marlboro Man in boosting Marlboro’s popularity in the 1970s, the report says.


    Health claims such as “less tar” or “light” lead consumers to believe they are choosing a healthier option, when this is not proven. According to a 2001 study by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the amount of tar in these products is reduced when measured by smoking machines. However, in practice, people who use these products inhale more frequently, take more frequent puffs or increase the number of cigarettes they smoke.


    Increased nicotine levels make it more difficult to quit. In addition, non-FDA approved nicotine products like Skoal and Snus claim to help people stop smoking, when they may actually discourage people from quitting.
    These additions make tobacco products more addictive and more hazardous, but unlike other legal drugs, they are not regulated by the government, according to the report.

    “Tobacco products are far from tobacco rolled in paper,” said Maryland. “They are highly engineered nicotine delivery devices. Regulation would certainly be appropriate. Most Americans don’t know that many chemicals are added to cigarettes to make them more addictive because the tobacco companies are not currently required to disclose anything about their products.”

    Tobacco companies are prohibited from marketing to children, but Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said these rules are not effective enough. “You can’t stop those who are currently addicted -- it’s almost like prohibition, it’s not going to happen,” Durbin said at the news conference. “But if you can cut off the new smokers, if you can stop the recruitment of children, you will see the number of smokers diminish over the years.”

    These concerns lead the report to support the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, pending in Congress, which would give the FDA authority to regulate ingredients in tobacco products as well as marketing.

    If the bill passes, the FDA would be able to require that companies disclose ingredients in tobacco products, prohibit misleading health claims, require changes to existing products and review new products before they could be sold.

    “If we don’t step up there will be another generation of death,” Durbin said. “Death created by the tobacco industry.”
  • mwood72

    #2
    Dissolvable tobacco tablets? That's an odd way to refer to Snus when it is tobacco, salt, water and flavorings in a minuture teabag?

    Chemical additives in Snus? I don't think so.

    Clever marketing? In which way could the marketing of Snus be described as "clever" ?

    Unproven health claims? The years of research of Snus in Sweden speaks for itself.

    Snus flavouered to hide the harsh taste of tobacco? I don't think so. The tobacco enhances the flavour of the Snus. Just look at the difference bewteen General and Onico.

    Snus unregulated? - Snus production is strictly regulated by the Swedish government.

    Sorry, couldn't resist a rant

    Comment

    • TropicalBob
      Member
      • Feb 2008
      • 316

      #3
      "Dissolvable tobacco tablets" refer directly to the beloved Stonewall pieces I use non-stop, along with snus. They are a product of an American company, Star Scientific, and contain only 4mg per piece. I love 'em.

      If the FDA gets control of tobacco products, you can expect EVERY product to have a regulated nicotine ceiling in line with the limits put on nicotine-cessation products -- about 4mg. Since those products leave smokers gasping for a nic fix, we will be in deep, deep trouble. N&J snus are 11mg, I believe, by way of comparison. Even Wise has a 6mg portion.

      Lordy help us if Congress turns regulation over to the FDA. World's gone crazy!

      Comment

      • mwood72

        #4
        4mg NRT strength ceiling, that would be a bad bad day and a victory for the pharma cos.

        Comment

        • darkwing
          Member
          • Oct 2007
          • 415

          #5
          Well, it's been clear for a while that pharma really wants to control the nicotine market. Their NRT products are available all over the place without prescriptions and people use the gum for years and suffer a load of side effects. Pharma are also sponsors of antitobacco efforts around the world, cashing in on the crusades against the evil tobacco "merchants of death." They will own us, eventually.

          Comment

          • darkwing
            Member
            • Oct 2007
            • 415

            #6
            Check out the nicorette horror stories at this link:

            http://www.askapatient.com/viewratin...name=NICORETTE

            Comment

            • mwood72

              #7
              Originally posted by darkwing
              Check out the nicorette horror stories at this link:

              http://www.askapatient.com/viewratin...name=NICORETTE
              That's pretty nasty reading. I must admit NRT gum gives me (aside from jaw ache) palpitations, a sore throat, a yo-yo mood and bloating. I feel that the phramas have never really got their synthetic nicotine quite right. I've also heard that most people that are able to tolerate it end up addicted to it anyway. I know my girlfriends father has been addicted to it for years and years (ever since it first came out)

              Comment

              • TropicalBob
                Member
                • Feb 2008
                • 316

                #8
                Nicorette horror stories

                You wonder how that product remains on the market. If snus caused a massive loss of hair, bloating, intestinal distress, mouth sores, palpitations, blood pressure rise, etc., it would be BANNED right now. But it has a long history of safe use (with minor or no significant side effects).

                The chemical form of nicotine required by the government might indeed be responsible. At least the nicotine in snus is not any synthetic.

                I failed on Nicorette, and my mouth had white patches and hurt while I used it. I also bit my tongue daily from frantic chewing (park the gum, my ass!). Snus is the superior oral absorption method. Glad I found it before the family fortune was exhausted in transfers to Big Pharma.

                Comment

                • chainsnuser
                  Senior Member
                  • Jan 2007
                  • 1388

                  #9
                  Oh yeah, I'm so glad that I was able to quit Nicorette gums after three weeks of use. I wonder how anyone manages to use this crap for years. That one must have very healthy teeth. Just recently one of my fillings, that was damaged by Nicorette-use, fell apart for good.

                  Honestly, if I hadn't found snus, then I would rather smoke than to use Nicorette. The years, cigarettes take from ones life-expectation are certainly less than those one loses by using this chemical crap. Not to mention that Nicorette contains so little of this useless "chemically altered nicotine", that I had to smoke some cigarettes in addition to Nicorette every day, or else I would have gone crazy.

                  Apart from the abhorrent taste, broken fillings, hellish jaw aches and the general unusablity of that stuff, regarding the nicotine-content, I personally can't say anything bad about Nicorette gums :lol:.

                  Cheers!

                  Comment

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

                    #10
                    My mom tried using nicotine gum when she quit smoking. She said that all it did was give her sores on the inside of her left cheek and some of the worst nausea she's ever had.

                    She used the gum for about four days, then just basically said "**** it" and did it cold turkey. She actually said that cold turkey sucked, but that it was far more comfortable that using the gum.

                    And there's also the fact that Nicorette is insanely expensive in comparison to snus. I'm not going to pay $40 for 110 pieces of Nicorette when I could order a roll (240 portions) for around 30 bucks.

                    Comment

                    • STORM6490MT
                      Member
                      • Mar 2008
                      • 138

                      #11
                      Pretty sad that they waste all their fiat currency on tobacco legislation. You think they would worry about more important issues like our homeless veterans.

                      Comment

                      • TropicalBob
                        Member
                        • Feb 2008
                        • 316

                        #12
                        I say give all the homeless free snus, so we can avoid the health care costs of their addictive smoking. Get 'em "hooked on healthy" should be our motto.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X