Cotton Ball Twist Plug

[Ansel]

Cotton Ball Twist Plug by Conwood... what's the TSNAs on this? Is it air-cured? Quite interested in trying it.

[Lobstersnuser]

Ansel; Cotton Boll is indeed an air-cured twist manufactured by American Snuff (formerly Conwood). Robust, to say the least. If you lack hair on your chest, it'll give you some......vice-versa, for that matter.
pdf link with some nic info and charts. Didn't notice anything on Tsna's per say, but it might help give you an idea.
http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monogr.../mono89-6A.pdf

[Ansel]

Thanks mate... i'm tempted to try it but a bit scared it is deadly, not the nic but the TSNAs or something.

[Darwin]

Shouldn't be any worse than dip or regular chew, if that's any kind of recommendation.

[Ansel]

Shouldn't be any worse than dip or regular chew, if that's any kind of recommendation.

But being air-cured it makes it safer, right?

[Monkey]

Not being fermented should make it less bad....also not using it all the time should also not make it too bad.

I use American looseleaf chew about once a month and really don't worry. I also will bum a dip every so often....maybe twice a quarter if that......when I am drinking with my brother in law. I know it is bad but such infrequent use doesn't make me obsess over it.

Just my opinion, the choice to try it is yours.

[Ansel]

Thanks Monkey, i fear i will like to do it often...

[Lobstersnuser]

I presume you mean "safer" in relation to Tsna levels. Air cure eliminates the involvement of nitrous oxides, (by-product from fire & flue-cure) which are a known pathway for Tsna formation. I guess a pro. However, air-cure Tsna levels greatly depend on any particular drying season conditions; hot & dry= lower levels.

Loosely speaking, the longer tobacco takes to dry, the more time Tsna levels have to promulgate.

These are definitely generalizations. Bear in mind Tsna levels can and often are artificially manipulated.

[Ansel]

thanks Lobster :-)

[lxskllr]

Give it a try. You might think it sucks, so the concern will be moot. If you don't try it, you'll always have that lingering doubt. You can worry about the particulars if you decide you like it.

[Ansel]

I ordered two and one of these:

[Lobstersnuser]

I ordered two and one of these:

LOL. The new Knifetool. The perfect accessory for your twist........ Chew in style for only $39.95

Make sure to give us a review of both.

[Ansel]

LOL. The new Knifetool. The perfect accessory for your twist........ Chew in style for only $39.95

Make sure to give us a review of both.

lol, it was pretty cheap

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-08698...0877906&sr=8-3

[Darwin]

Lobstersnuser what you are referring to as nitrous oxides are actually nitrosamines which are a family of chemical compounds that are generally thought to have mutagenic properties. They occur in lots of foods, particularly cooked proteins, but here of course we're talking about the evil leaf so TSNAs means Tobacco Specific NitrosAmines. While it is true that heat curing increases the concentration of these chemicals it is not true that air-cured tobacco is devoid of them. They just occur in amounts trivially insignificant to anyone's health in air-cured snus. It is highly debatable that the TSNA count in any non-smoked tobacco product is especially harmful, particularly compared to the vast increase in the chemicals caused by the burning of tobacco for smoking.

Probabilities being what they are, dip and chew users have a greater risk of cancer but it is a far far lower risk than seen with smoking. But lower doesn't mean zero of course. In the case of snus the very low TSNA levels along with the much lower likelihood of mechanical mouth damage compared to dip means that the probability of mouth cancer in snus users is virtually zero. Even in snus that is not air-cured cancer probabilities are absurdly low so looking at that issue in isolation is not all that fruitful. In the case of dip and chew there are a lot more products in there to worry about than TSNAs, such as sweeteners, and suffice to say that even though an air-cured chew might indeed have a decently low TSNA count there are still the mechanical mouth damage issues to consider. In addition who knows what the heck else they put in any given chew, air-cured or otherwise. In any case worry warting over TSNAs is, to me, a form of being penny-wise and pound foolish. Any smokeless tobacco is so drastically less harmful than smoking that all the other details rather fade into insignificance. By far the biggest issue for me, and most others here who are champions of smokeless tobacco, is whether or not a product tastes good and delivers the precious Vitamin N.

As far as the air-cured Cotton Boll Twist goes the important thing is whether or not it tastes good to any given person. It might, after extremely long term use, be ever so slightly less harmful than flue-cured products, but the difference in probabilities is way down there at the bottom of the relevancy scale. I personally wouldn't lose a microseconds sleep over it and I doubt that many others on this forum would either.

[Lobstersnuser]

Darwin: I agree completely with your post. I respectfully apologize if my reply was off-base. Personally, tsna levels are about as important to my tobacco usage as caloric information on my chocolate bar wrapper. I understood, (perhaps incorrectly) Ansel was referring tsna numbers in relation to air-cure vs. fire-cure.

I was trying, without excessive detail, to identify a noticeable difference in the two, thereby providing a possibility as to why this may be so.

What I was simply trying to convey was:
1) Nitrous oxides (NOx) are produced as a by-product by the combustion of various fuels used and the alkaloids in tobacco
2) NOx gases are known pathways for tsna growth.
3) Air-cure doesn't involve combustive fuels.

In respect to those statements only, I consider air-curing "safer".

Cheers