I realize that this thread is very old, but I'd like to add a few things coming from the perspective of an analytical chemist who works for Swedish Match to compare our Swedish snus to our American moist snuff from a harmful and potentially harmful constituent point of view and shed some insight.
We all know that moist snuff is fermented, and snus is pasteurized. Others have posted about tobacco blends and that moist snuff uses US tobacco only. This is not true. We purchase tobacco from all over the world for our blends. American grown tobacco is higher in heavy metals like cadmium, mercury, lead, zinc, etc because of the soil composition, and burley tobacco we grow for use in moist snuff has a better ability to transport those heavy metals to the leaves, aka lamina, because these metals are required for the health of the plant. Because of this, we blend with tobaccos from other parts of the world that are lower in metals. Also, US regulations on the use of agrochemicals limit or prohibit the use of thousands of chemicals, but those regulations don't necessarily exist in developing countries, so that is also an area of interest because those chemicals are also very hazardous to human health. So all potentially purchased tobacco is screened for agrochemicals, heavy metals, nitrosamines, etc before purchase.
The curing process is where many of the harmful constituents come in. Tobacco specific nitrosamines are primarily formed not in the growing plant but during the curing process, especially in fire cured tobaccos. They originate from nicotine itself and other similar alkaloids. A lack of O2, heat and high water content in the lamina aid in the production of these compounds tremendously. Methods and methodologies have been developed over the years to limit the formation of these compounds (ie. Good farming practices, flue curing, air curing, etc). Fire curing also adds PAHs to the tobacco.
That said, swedish snus made to the Gothiatek standard, contains no fire cured tobacco, whereas moist snuff is > 50% fire cured tobacco. Brands other than Red Man, Timberwolf and Longhorn... like Grizzly, Kodiak, Copenhagen, skoal are even higher, which correlates to higher tsna, among other harmful constituents.
Fermentation is another area of concern. Pasteurization of snus is basically an elimination of microbials, whereas fermentation is the cultivation of the microbials in a controlled environment of specific moisture content and salinity in order to have specific activity during fermentation and limit unwanted microbial activity, like nitrate reduction to nitrite because nitrite is the key factor in the production of many TSNAs.
As for ingredients, what is there in the ingredient list is what goes into the finished tobacco. So formaldahyde is NOT NOR HAS IT EVER BEEN added to smokeless tobacco products. I cant speak for cigarettes because i do not test those ir know the manufacturing process but most smokeless tobacco makers (except Swedish Match) are the same companies that make cigarettes, so im assuming the same is true for cigarettes. Now, tobacco is a very complex matrix of several thousand compounds, most of which are inherent to the tobacco itself and not added. We can't control what is inherent to the tobacco itself, but we can and do test the levels of these hazardous compounds at every stage of the process so that we know that we are within our very strict standards. Because of this complex matrix, we cannot control every interaction but we do try to understand these interactions and limit the negative ones, for example the production of ethyl carbamate. It is formed by the reaction between ethanol (which us used as a flavor diluent) and urea, that is inherent.
Ingredients that are added to snus and/or snuff are salts, water, buffers (sodium carbonate, magnesium carbonate and/or ammonium carbonate...which are there to raise the pH and therefore, increase the nicotine absorption in vivo, and reduce microbial activity), flavors, ethanol (most Swedish Match snus contains no ethanol and the elimination of ethanol from all is in the final stage), propylene glycol. Other companies add binders and plasticizers but Swedish Match has a very extensive list of compounds that we do not use such as these, and certain flavor components that are considered hazardous.
As for recommended storage, snus is refrigerated because of the lack of addition of certain compounds that have a preservative effect. What I mean by this is snus flavors as you well know are very subtle meaning they are in low concentrations, typically 0.05-0.5%, because the flavors used are very strong so not much is needed. Snuff isnt refrigerated (although it doesn't hurt) because the flavors are added at a high percentage (ie. Wintergreen (methyl salicylate) at 2.5%-3%) and most moist snuff flavors have a preservative effect and hence reduce microbial activity that can cause the rise of nitrosamines. So we dont add formaldahyde or any harmful ingredient to moist snuff.
And for the record, there is no fiberglass in moist snuff.
To conclude smokeless tobacco is safer than cigarettes, although the FDA doesnt allow that verbage to be on the packaging. Swedish snus made to the extremely rigorous standards of Gothiatek, is the safest of smokeless tobacco products on the market today. It is this way because it is the only product out there that has limits to the allowable amounts of hundreds of hazardous constituents.
Any questions or comments, let me know
We all know that moist snuff is fermented, and snus is pasteurized. Others have posted about tobacco blends and that moist snuff uses US tobacco only. This is not true. We purchase tobacco from all over the world for our blends. American grown tobacco is higher in heavy metals like cadmium, mercury, lead, zinc, etc because of the soil composition, and burley tobacco we grow for use in moist snuff has a better ability to transport those heavy metals to the leaves, aka lamina, because these metals are required for the health of the plant. Because of this, we blend with tobaccos from other parts of the world that are lower in metals. Also, US regulations on the use of agrochemicals limit or prohibit the use of thousands of chemicals, but those regulations don't necessarily exist in developing countries, so that is also an area of interest because those chemicals are also very hazardous to human health. So all potentially purchased tobacco is screened for agrochemicals, heavy metals, nitrosamines, etc before purchase.
The curing process is where many of the harmful constituents come in. Tobacco specific nitrosamines are primarily formed not in the growing plant but during the curing process, especially in fire cured tobaccos. They originate from nicotine itself and other similar alkaloids. A lack of O2, heat and high water content in the lamina aid in the production of these compounds tremendously. Methods and methodologies have been developed over the years to limit the formation of these compounds (ie. Good farming practices, flue curing, air curing, etc). Fire curing also adds PAHs to the tobacco.
That said, swedish snus made to the Gothiatek standard, contains no fire cured tobacco, whereas moist snuff is > 50% fire cured tobacco. Brands other than Red Man, Timberwolf and Longhorn... like Grizzly, Kodiak, Copenhagen, skoal are even higher, which correlates to higher tsna, among other harmful constituents.
Fermentation is another area of concern. Pasteurization of snus is basically an elimination of microbials, whereas fermentation is the cultivation of the microbials in a controlled environment of specific moisture content and salinity in order to have specific activity during fermentation and limit unwanted microbial activity, like nitrate reduction to nitrite because nitrite is the key factor in the production of many TSNAs.
As for ingredients, what is there in the ingredient list is what goes into the finished tobacco. So formaldahyde is NOT NOR HAS IT EVER BEEN added to smokeless tobacco products. I cant speak for cigarettes because i do not test those ir know the manufacturing process but most smokeless tobacco makers (except Swedish Match) are the same companies that make cigarettes, so im assuming the same is true for cigarettes. Now, tobacco is a very complex matrix of several thousand compounds, most of which are inherent to the tobacco itself and not added. We can't control what is inherent to the tobacco itself, but we can and do test the levels of these hazardous compounds at every stage of the process so that we know that we are within our very strict standards. Because of this complex matrix, we cannot control every interaction but we do try to understand these interactions and limit the negative ones, for example the production of ethyl carbamate. It is formed by the reaction between ethanol (which us used as a flavor diluent) and urea, that is inherent.
Ingredients that are added to snus and/or snuff are salts, water, buffers (sodium carbonate, magnesium carbonate and/or ammonium carbonate...which are there to raise the pH and therefore, increase the nicotine absorption in vivo, and reduce microbial activity), flavors, ethanol (most Swedish Match snus contains no ethanol and the elimination of ethanol from all is in the final stage), propylene glycol. Other companies add binders and plasticizers but Swedish Match has a very extensive list of compounds that we do not use such as these, and certain flavor components that are considered hazardous.
As for recommended storage, snus is refrigerated because of the lack of addition of certain compounds that have a preservative effect. What I mean by this is snus flavors as you well know are very subtle meaning they are in low concentrations, typically 0.05-0.5%, because the flavors used are very strong so not much is needed. Snuff isnt refrigerated (although it doesn't hurt) because the flavors are added at a high percentage (ie. Wintergreen (methyl salicylate) at 2.5%-3%) and most moist snuff flavors have a preservative effect and hence reduce microbial activity that can cause the rise of nitrosamines. So we dont add formaldahyde or any harmful ingredient to moist snuff.
And for the record, there is no fiberglass in moist snuff.
To conclude smokeless tobacco is safer than cigarettes, although the FDA doesnt allow that verbage to be on the packaging. Swedish snus made to the extremely rigorous standards of Gothiatek, is the safest of smokeless tobacco products on the market today. It is this way because it is the only product out there that has limits to the allowable amounts of hundreds of hazardous constituents.
Any questions or comments, let me know
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