Story of my life

[Frosted]

I've seen some Bulgarian women. I want to live there.

[GN Tobacco Sweden AB]

So me Lennart , G started hard work and suddenly we get know that our microbiologist who warked for Karolinska institute get Blood cancer ;( problem is mikeobilogy is ver important for snus production and we was not understanding in microbiology nothing ... And G gone for long long time to hospital ... It was disaster for us we do not know what to do , cause of moral point of view I could not come to G and say to him you know what sorry that you have this illness learn us how to do calculate bacteria and so on ..... But the Lord gave us another possibility ... Now G is better and we expecting him soon to came back during that time our good friends started to talk about is good things like how ugly our cans are and how bed is it that we produce thru fermentation it is a bull shit guys , ... We did not waited suche unknoligment from people who do not know about snus nothing start to talk about snus like profesionals...

[GN Tobacco Sweden AB]

If you have questions about my life and so on just go ahead and ask , I will answer to all

[Frosted]

I love the way you do things. "Right, I'm off to Russia. Ok, I'm off to Sweden. Ok, I'll just randomly start a snus company LOL.

Hope G is alright now.

[precious007]

Hey GN, sorry to hear about G I was curios to know what has microbiology and bacteria have to do with snus?

Microbiology is the study of microscopic organism (I suppose there aren't any in snus, I've read recent studies of how nicotine is actually a great antibacterial agent, bacteria can hardly be in snus) just wondering..

Would you move back to Russia?

I'd love to live there

[Frosted]

Edited.

On the meeting at F.W. Rickard Seed In Winchester the 18^th of April I was asked to write some comments on the factors influencing TSNA accumulation during storage. The question was, if the observed increase of TSNA-content during storage of baled tobacco is due to microbial activity or other mechanisms.
It is common knowledge that TSNA are produced during curing and are formed in the reaction of alkaloids with nitrite-derived nitrosating species such as NO₂, N₂O₃ and N₂O₄. The source of nitrite during the air-curing process is microbial. The time for microorganisms to produce nitrite is by the end of yellowing when the cells in tobacco leaves loose their integrity and the cellular content is leaking into the intercellular space. Nutrition is then made accessible to microorganisms and the water content (water activity) in the tobacco is high enough for bacteria to grow. Nitrite may accumulate as a result of nitrate reduction by bacteria and TSNA are formed by chemical reactions between nitrite (source of nitrosating species) and alkaloids. When the tobacco dries out during the curing process the water content (water activity) decreases dramatically. At the end of curing the water content (water activity) in tobacco is too low, < 40% (< 0.8) for bacteria to grow and contribute to further production of nitrite.
In various air-curing experiments it has been shown that a substantial nitrite production during air-curing does not necessarily lead to high levels of TSNA in cured tobacco. The reaction between alkaloids and nitrite is not very effective at pH 6, which is the pH of the cured tobacco. However, besides nitrosation of alkaloids the fate of nitrite is not well known. Possible reactions of the excessive nitrite could involve nitrosation of other compounds in tobacco or/and loss as gaseous nitrogen oxides. So if the curing process generated nitrite, the freshly air-cured tobacco is still rich in unstable nitroso-compounds. These compounds will participate in continuous nitrosation of alkaloids during storage and lead to further TSNA accumulation. The reactions involved are chemical reactions such as transnitrosation and gas phase nitrosation. These reactions may occur under a relatively dry conditions where microorganisms are unable to grow and contribute to nitrite formation.
In order to avoid TSNA accumulation during storage of cured tobacco the most important is to have a good curing process with as low nitrite formation as possible. The tobacco in the bales should not be packed too tightly in order to permit residual nitrosating species to be ventilated into the atmosphere instead of reacting with alkaloids. The moisture content in the bales should be as low as possible in order to prevent any chemical reactions and microbial growth.

[Darwin]

Precious of course there are microbes in snus but since they inhabit every organic material on earth, and many non organic ones, this is hardly a serious problem. As the piece Extreme posted shows the important part of curing, vis-a-vis carcinogens, is to minimize bacterial and chemical reactions that increase TSNAs. Naturally when snus was first sold to the public manufacturers had no notion whatsoever of such things and so were entirely unconcerned. The fact that snus is about the safest way to consume tobacco, for sundry reasons, is in truth a happy accident and as such that makes me very happy indeed, as it should all of us. Happy accident or not that should not prevent the safety of snus being used in advertising and as counter ammunition in the great anti-tobacco wars of today. Also it's perfectly legitimate and praiseworthy for manufacturers to work on lowering TSNAs farther even if such lowering has minimal effects on health issues.

As far as the nicotine in snus being hostile to many micro-organisms this may well be true but since microbes have evolved to inhabit the most extreme environments found on the planet it is a certainty that nicotine, or any other anti-microbial substance, will not suppress all of them.

[bill77.017]

GN, I hope things work out for G and he's back with you soon. Can't wait to hear the rest of your story.

[GN Tobacco Sweden AB]

GN, I hope things work out for G and he's back with you soon. Can't wait to hear the rest of your story.

Thank you Bill I am done with my story , now I am waiting for others stories

[GN Tobacco Sweden AB]

Hey GN, sorry to hear about G I was curios to know what has microbiology and bacteria have to do with snus?

Microbiology is the study of microscopic organism (I suppose there aren't any in snus, I've read recent studies of how nicotine is actually a great antibacterial agent, bacteria can hardly be in snus) just wondering..

Would you move back to Russia?

I'd love to live there

No I will not my home is Sweden I live here nearly 20 yers if I will move then to Switzerland you know rich busterds love that place ... and my mom needs to let me as well

[bill77.017]

Thank you Bill I am done with my story , now I am waiting for others stories

Thanks for telling us GN. Armenia has had a hard time as a country, hasn't it? I knew about the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks, which i believe to this day they refuse to acknowledge, but wasn't aware of the earthquake or the war. That must have been tough on your parents brother.

[Roo]

I work for a particularly unusual travel company that specializes in all of the former Soviet countries as well as Russia itself, and a few other places like China, Iran, Mongolia... but out most popular trips are to the Caucasus region, starting in Baku and ending in Yerevan (with Georgia in the middle), and also Central Asia trips to "the 5 'Stans" as well call it, but of course officially there are 7. Anyway, my only point is that I send people to Yerevan all the time. I am in charge of the air operations for the company, on other words, getting our clients to these destinations.

I suppose I work at this job because my greatest passion in life, besides family and friends, is travel. There is nothing quite like experiencing a foreign culture directly through conversation and understanding, even if there is a 100% language barrier. Being able to share a laugh with someone, being invited into someone's home, seeing the hardships and pleasures that make up their daily life -- there is no better way for us humans to begin to understand each other and get along with each other than by directly experiencing other parts of the world and how people live, why and how they do the things that they do. Unfortunately, this is usually an expensive endeavor, but in my opinion it is worth every penny.

My father worked for a major shoe company in the early days. We lived wherever shoes were being made at the time. I was conceived in Taiwan, but by the time I was born, shoes were already being made in Seoul. My family returned to the States for a while, because believe it or not for a few years there athletic shoes were being made in the USA, then we were off to Korea again, and I traveled through Japan as a small child and we lived in Taiwan again for 6 months or so. Then we returned to the States again, where I mostly attended elementary school, then my father mutinied and changed companies, essentially doing what his boss would have considered treason at the time. We moved to the land of Adi (Adolf) Dassler, better known for his shoe company Adidas. I attended Munich International School and absolutely loved living there and being friends with people from 90+ countries. It was a very fulfilling and educational time in my life. I forgot a period where we also lived in the Netherlands for a year, and Italy for a few months. Anyway by the time I was 12 or 13 we had moved back to the States, then a couple years later my father changed jobs again and began working for the company founded by Adi Dassler's brother -- Puma. I stopped caring about when or where my father was working about this time, because he seemed to make a habit of changing companies faster than a baby changes its nappies. All this back and forth to the USA was to Portland, Oregon, with the exception of New Hampshire before the Netherlands. Finally we ended up in Seattle where I attended High School.

I went to the University of Oregon and wanted to study anthropology, but was too distracted by my new best friend -- the woman I live with to this day. We just had our first baby in December. We have been together since we were 18 years old and now we are 33 (or 32? lol). I was so distracted by her that I never went to class and finally after a year and half they kicked me out. We moved to Portland, I got a job washing dishes for 2 restaurants at the same time and attended community college until I could get my grades up to get into a decent small school in Portland (Lewis & Clark College). There I studied Chinese studies and at one point had a feeble command of Mandarin, going over there to study the language and party with Chinese people. I did far more of the latter. I managed to graduate and have taken every opportunity I've found to go back to China. I've not able to find a particularly well-paying job, but by working in the travel industry I stumble upon opportunities to go to far-away places and do what I love best. My hope now is that I can make enough money to not only support my new family, but also to be able to take them to far-away places and experience the world in ways I have gotten to do, and plenty of new ways as well.

Someday, I would love to go to Armenia and sample the famous wines and cognacs, go to Georgia and eat their reputable bread and delicious food, and of course travel to Sweden and stay at GN's house for 5 or 6 weeks. That's my story for now I guess. Thanks for listening. Let's hear some more. GN -- thank you for sharing. Very fascinating.

[Frosted]

Very interesting Roo. You're definately a traveller - anybody that takes to Far Eastern countries is a true traveller. I hated it.

[bill77.017]

Thanks for telling us GN. Armenia has had a hard time as a country, hasn't it? I knew about the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks, which i believe to this day they refuse to acknowledge, but wasn't aware of the earthquake or the war. That must have been tough on your parents brother.

Ireland's had a hard time too as a country. In 1845 we had the great famine here, where over a million people died and a million more emigrated. Isn't that hard to believe, just over a hundred and sixty years ago the Irish were starving and other countries around us were prospering. But that's history, isn't it. Up the north there was the troubles which went on for years and is still not finished. I don't know, the world can be a hard place can't it?

[Frosted]

What pisses me off about the famine is that Ireland had plenty of food but the English land owners shipped ALL of it out. That's genocide.
It's incredible to think that the population of Ireland is still suffering today - and it wasn't that long ago really.