Research proves snuff is still very dangerous stuff

April 1, 2008

High school- and college-age smokers who look to smokeless tobacco as a stepping-stone to quitting are in for a rude awakening—this “lesser of two evils” will still cause cancer and other significant health risks.

Dr. Scott Tomar, department chairman and professor of community dentistry at the University of Florida’s College of Dentistry, and University of Missouri researcher Dorothy K. Hatsukami published a study in the November issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research that outlined the hazards facing young smokers who are presented with the alternative of smokeless tobacco products.

“Even among pack-a-day smokers in high school, the perception was that smoking was riskier than smokeless tobacco,” said Tomar in a UF podcast interview.

Tomar explains that while smoking does result in higher instances of cancer, there is no research supporting the idea that someone who switches to smokeless tobacco really reduces their risk.

“There is no published evidence that smokeless tobacco is an effective method of quitting smoking. It does not pass even the most liberal definition of evidence-based medicine or public health,” he said.

The American Cancer society points out on their Web site that smokeless tobacco users report as much difficulty quitting the habit as smokers quitting cigarettes, possibly due to the high levels of nicotine in smokeless tobacco. An average dose of nicotine from snuff is 3.6 mg and is 4.5 mg from chewing tobacco, compared to 1 to 2 mg from a cigarette.

“Smokeless tobacco use deals only with the chemical aspect of addiction, and compared to pharmaceutical nicotine products, it is far more dangerous,” Tomar explained.

Even so, young adults are more likely to use smokeless tobacco than their older counterparts, according to 2007 research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While only 3 percent of adults use smokeless tobacco on a regular basis, 8 percent of high school and 3 percent of middle school students use these products. This is down from the almost 10 percent reported in the CDC’s study of high school smokeless tobacco use in 1997.

Keeping in mind the steady decline in smokeless tobacco use in the last 10 years, Tomar believes that young people, especially adolescent and young adult men, are still exposed to risk by tobacco advertising.

“The major manufacturers continue to market their products in ways that continue to appeal to that audience, and there is a very real danger that those young people will interpret these harm reduction messages as implying the products are harmless,” he said.