Chewing Tobacco No Safer Than Smoking

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we get it chewing tobacco is worse than smoking a cigerate the first paragraph was long enough

lexy of FL 7:19PM March 28, 2012

yes it is. no tar. no smoke in lungs- which is the true harm (killing lung cleansing mechanisms and such and heat damaging them- I mean standing in front of burning leaves for 10 minutes breathing deeply in 20-40 times a day will give you empyhsema like smoking in 40 years- it is the delivery not the drug that kills. the drug just makes you say F everything rational I want more drug.
It is not like I would say oh since smoking is bad I will start chewing (from user level 0) but from someone who has smoked for 10-15 years it is a mega improvement. And for oral cancer- guess what smoking causes that too and btw the fiberglass is an urban legend. like how blacks have an extra leg muscle. total bs that got repeated so much that you yokels believe it to be fact.
why not celebrate the choice of the lesser of 2 evils? besides chewing tobacco is much less addictive (you will have mental problems to go through by just cutting out the act of smoking itself). Cigarettes contain dozens of additives that make the nicotine heat at the perfect temperature for absorbtion so you FULLY get the dose. While lb for lb chewing has the same amount of nicotine you absorb far less and teeth and gums are better problems to have than oh say heart and lungs.
of course 0 use is what is to be desired going from worse to well prospects are not so bad now is a good thing.
if you really want to help an addict you care for nag them to switch to additive free chewing products and such that have been tested/marketed for health concerns (google snus)

dgfhgf of IA 3:24AM April 11, 2010

I'm glad this study has finally came out as I now have something to show to my husband about his dipping habit.

Anita of MS 2:37PM August 28, 2009

The author states that one pinch of chewing tobacco has as much PAH as 5 cigarettes, but never bothers to explain the dangers of PAH RELATIVE TO THE OTHER DANGERS OF CIGARETTES. According to the Wisconsin Institute of Nutrition (http://www.nutritioninstitute.com/cancerprevention.html) a single 1/2lb charcoal-grilled hamburger has as much PAH as 120 cigarettes. If hamburgers are considered safe to eat, then snuff must be super-safe.
Did an editor even bother to read this article before publishing it?

Dan H of CA 11:26AM August 19, 2009

Read

Mr of GA 1:04PM August 18, 2009

Some marijuana instead. lees carcinogens!

Rick of HI 12:54PM August 18, 2009

by this reasoning, barbequeing is also hazerdous and should be outlawed to those under the age of 18 unless of course, they are in the military in which case their life expectancy is shortened anyways. wait, even better, perhaps meat should be consumed raw or perhaps after a short 20 second blast from a microwave to kill bacterias or other small critters but maybe that won't be enough to kill worms, shoot, .. i guess we're all just going to die.

mogwai of NE 10:39AM August 18, 2009

It is a tragedy that, as a condition of joining the EU in 1992, Sweden agreed not to export snus. Sweden has a smoking prevalence of 15% among males, the lowest in the developed world; and also has by far the lowest incidence of male lung cancer in the EU. Incidence of pancreatic and oral cancer is also near the bottom of the EU rankings. These attempts to portray snus, and also recently, ecigs as as hazardous as cigarettes are actually increasing the number of deaths from tobacco products.

Jonathan Bagley 7:42AM August 18, 2009

Swedish snus is steam distilled and air dried as opposed to American snuff or snus which is fire cured and fermented. The snus worked great for me in my effort to quit smoking-Chantix, the patch, gum and cold turkey did not work for me. I am amazed that the articles written regarding the horrors of smoking or using oral tobacco never mention tobacco that is manufactured using steam distillation.

deborahsue1 of WA 1:00AM August 18, 2009

Stepanov is dead wrong when asserting that chewing tobacco is no safer than smoking.
Cigarettes cause deaths from lung cancer, other cancers, heart disease and lung disease (other than cancer). In addition, cigarettes cause fires and kill about 40,000 non-smokers from the toxic effects of environmental tobacco smoke http://www.aaphp.org/special/joelstobac/20081026HarmReductionResolutionAsPassedl.pdf.
Not only that, the PAH’s referenced in the Stepanov study account for less than 2% of the deaths from smoking cigarettes http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/3.584
Almost all the deaths from smoking cigarettes are attributable to other toxic products of combustion, and the process by which smokers inhale these toxic products deep into the lung to secure the desired dose of nicotine.
Chewing tobacco, while not safe by any other standard, carries a risk of death less than 5% the risk posed by smoking cigarettes. While Stepanov may have her chemistry right, with regard to the one set of chemicals she chose for study, she has her epidemiology and public health implications all wrong.

Joel L. Nitzkin, MD of LA 9:06PM August 17, 2009