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Dental Experts Blast Tobacco Companies for Expanding Smokeless Product Lines, Urge Congress to Pass Bills Giving FDA Oversight of Tobacco Products
OKEMOS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New tobacco products being test marketed by U.S. tobacco companies will likely discourage users from quitting and will lure non-users, especially young people, to adopt a nicotine habit, warns Dr. Jed Jacobson, chief science officer of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee (Delta Dental). He said the products, known as snus (pronounced “snoose”), are not safe and should not be used by consumers.
Jacobson, and Dr. Joan McGowan, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, say the new product lines – part of the tobacco industry’s growth strategy to counter declining smoking rates and smoking bans - should spur Congress to pass proposed legislation that would grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broad authority to regulate tobacco products.
Snus is a Swedish type of smokeless tobacco that is packaged in teabag-like pouches that a user sticks between the upper lip and gum. They may appeal to smokers whose habits have been curtailed by no smoking laws or who don’t like the idea of spitting out traditional chewing tobacco or snuff. Tobacco companies, and some proponents of the product, say snus is less harmful than cigarette smoking. Test marketing of the product is expanding to more metropolitan areas in the U.S. this spring.
“Tobacco companies are touting snus as a safe alternative to smoking but their claims are unproven, misleading, and, frankly, suspect,” said Jacobson. “Without rigorous oversight by a regulatory agency, American consumers will never know the full truth about the health risks of any tobacco product.”
“Whatever form it’s in, tobacco is dangerous and smokeless tobacco is a direct assault on oral tissue, increasing the user’s risk for disease,” said McGowan. “It’s time to put an end to the tobacco industry’s disregard for public health and by requiring FDA approval over the manufacture and marketing of current and new tobacco products.”
She continued, “While sales of cigarettes have been on the decline, sales of smokeless products have been growing for the past several years, and cigarette companies are now capitalizing on this trend. The increased use of smokeless tobacco products should be seen as a major public health problem requiring collaborative efforts on the part of dental health professionals, school personnel, parents, and community organizations to educate our children on the dangers of all these tobacco products and addiction.”
The landmark bi-partisan bills (Senate Bill 625 and House Bill 1108), known as the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, recently passed out of committee. They may go the full Senate and House for consideration before the Memorial Day recess.
Among other things, the proposed legislation requires tobacco companies to disclose detailed information about their products and marketing efforts, authorize the FDA to require changes in current and future tobacco products to make them safer, and prohibit tobacco companies from making any explicit or implicit health claims.
More about smokeless tobacco
Smokeless tobacco is available as chewing tobacco, snuff (including snus), and dissolvable tablets.
Snus was first developed in Sweden, which is the only country in the European Union where its use is legal. Some studies have shown that Swedish-produced snus contains lower levels of cancer-causing chemicals than those found in cigarettes or U.S.-produced snuff.
Recently published data suggests that the use of Swedish snus doubles the user’s risk of pancreatic cancer.
“Snus” means snuff in Swedish. Without regulation, U.S. tobacco companies can brand any form of smokeless tobacco as snus.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Minnesota concluded that smokeless tobacco is not a safe substitute for smoking. It found that users of smokeless tobacco had a similar exposure to one of tobacco’s most potent cancer-causing agents, known as NNK.
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents, including formaldehyde (the same chemical used in embalming), butanol (an industrial solvent and alternative fuel), and polonium-210 and uranium-235 (both used in nuclear weapons).
In addition, the NCI also reports that the amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is 3 to 4 times the amount delivered by a cigarette. Nicotine is absorbed more slowly from smokeless tobacco than from cigarettes and stays in the bloodstream for a longer time.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 3 percent of adults are current smokeless tobacco users. In addition, 13.6 percent of all boys in U.S. high schools and 2.2 percent of high school girls use smokeless tobacco products.
Sales of one category of smokeless tobacco are soaring. The Federal Trade Commission reported that sales of moist snuff in the U.S. more than doubled in volume from 1986 to 2005.
For more information about tobacco and cancer, go to www.cancer.gov (National Cancer Institute). To learn about efforts to prevent children from becoming tobacco users, go to www.tobaccofreekids.org. For consumers who want to contact their U.S. senator or representative about the proposed legislation, go to www.thomas.gov for Congressional phone numbers and email addresses.
The affiliated Delta Dental companies of Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana collectively are one of the largest dental plan administrators in the nation. In 2007, the enterprise paid out nearly $1.8 billion for dental care for more than 6.2 million enrollees. Offices are located in Okemos and Farmington Hills, Mich.; Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio; Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis, Tenn. and, Indianapolis and Greenwood, Ind. For more information, go to www.deltadentalmi.com.
Contacts
Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana
Ellen Jones or Kristin Kovach
517-347-5241 or 517-347-5244
E-mail: ejones@deltadentalmi.com -
“Without rigorous oversight by a regulatory agency, American consumers will never know the full truth about the health risks of any tobacco product.”
Huh?
Rigorous oversight already exists in the form of the Swedish National Food Administration.
Add to that the SCENHIR report and the LEGION of studies done on snus and I would venture to say that we already know the health risks...
Which regulatory agency? Surely not the FDA?
http://tobaccofreekids.org/research/...s/pdf/0283.pdfComment
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You know, the only thing that will stop things like this from being effective is education. I think people are starting to understand that the news is just a conduit for shilling and propaganda by focused interests. Anyone with a rational, scientific mind will simply look at this rat-poison/industrial-solvent/nuclear-weapon scaremongering simply for what it is - shameless hyperbole. I'm just waiting for the US media to start linking snus to Al Qaeda. That seems to be the general fallback position when nothing else works :lol:Comment
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