HWN Suggests

Tobacco is Changing: Smokeless Tobacco

Every year, half a million kids in the U.S.—mostly boys and young men—try smokeless tobacco for the first time. Whether they’re tucking a pinch, or a pouch, of flavored tobacco behind their lip, or chewing on a wad of shredded tobacco leaves, the results are the same. Nicotine and other dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals are released into the bloodstream, increasing the user’s risk of addiction, illness, and even death, usually for less than the cost of a pack of cigarettes.

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 Women Who Chew (Eew!)

OK, so perhaps I've been a bit naive. Since when did groups of women chew together? At that moment, everything I thought I knew about chewing tobacco (that it was a pastime normally reserved for jocks, cowboys, construction workers--of the male species) went out the window. News flash: Women chew, too. News flash #2: Gross.

Articles of Interest

Big Tobacco Finds Surprise Allies in Smokeless Push

Tobacco companies want to market smokeless products as less harmful; some health advocates agree

Campaign to Snuff out Smokeless Tobacco in Baseball Intensifies

John Gibbons had been using smokeless tobacco for about 25 years when he encountered Bill Tuttle in the mid-1990s. By then, Tuttle, a former major-league outfielder, was drifting inexorably toward a dreadful death. And as the end approached, he embarked on a mission: to convince players, in both the high school and professional ranks, not to do what he had done.

Effects of Smokeless Tobacco Products Overblown

Opponents of these products have presented numbers that suggest smokeless tobacco is an enormous public-health threat akin to cigarettes, while supporters, including some scientists, suggest smokeless items could offer a solution to smoking's toll on public health. Both claims are based on misinterpretations of the data.

FDA Approves Smokeless Tobacco Product, But Warns That None Are Completely Safe

There's no such thing as risk-free tobacco products, but the FDA has determined it has enough evidence to show that a brand of smokeless tobacco products called General snus is less harmful than smoking cigarettes

Is Chewing Tobacco Banned in MLB?

From regular-season games to the baseball playoffs to historical footage of MLB legends, we’ve all seen footage of players dipping or chewing smokeless tobacco. It’s been a cultural part of the game since the very beginning, but with the rather disgusting habit now linked to a range of serious health effects, it’s understandable many want to see smokeless tobacco use eradicated from baseball. Major League Baseball’s 2016 collective bargaining agreement banned the use of smokeless tobacco, including chewing tobacco, for all new big league players. However, it did not apply to any player who already had at least one day of major league service at that time.

Is smokeless tobacco safer than cigarettes?

Smokeless tobacco companies may tout their products as a safer alternative to smoking, but this is far from the truth. Whether you dip or chew, smokeless tobacco can be highly addictive and lead to serious health issues.

Meet the Zynfluencers: how nicotine pouches ignited a new culture war

Zyn, a kind of modern-day snuff, has developed a bro-y fandom on social media. It’s also opened up a predictable divide.

Smokeless Tobacco Myth Activity

While people may try to quit smoking by using smokeless tobacco, smokeless tobacco actually delivers more nicotine in each use than smoking cigarettes does. The amount of nicotine delivered in one “dip” or “chew” can be equal to five times the amount in one cigarette.

Smokeless Tobacco and Kids

Since 1970, smokeless tobacco has gone from a product used primarily by older men to one used predominantly by young men and boys. This trend has occurred as smokeless tobacco promotions have increased dramatically and a new generation of smokeless tobacco products, including nicotine pouches, has hit the market. Far from being a “safe” alternative to cigarette smoking, smokeless tobacco use causes cancer and increases the risk of developing other health problems, including nicotine addiction and the potential to move on to combustible tobacco products. For years, tobacco companies have marketed smokeless tobacco products as a way to use tobacco in places or situations when smoking is not allowed or is not socially acceptable, and that practice continues today. Seeing the downward trend in smoking rates and the increasing popularity of smokeless tobacco products, tobacco companies have introduced new forms of smokeless tobacco products that have a number of characteristics that can attract new, young users.

Smokeless Tobacco and Public Health: A Global Perspective

The report aims to identify gaps and needs related to monitoring and surveillance of ST products and other information collection, and make recommendations for strengthening international collaboration and building a scientific basis for ST product control and regulation.

Smokeless Tobacco in the United States

Although cigarette smoking among youth in the U.S. has declined significantly since 2000, use of smokeless tobacco among youth has declined much more slowly.

Smokeless Tobacco Is NOT a Safe Alternative to Cigarettes

Now that it has been scientifically determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health, the tobacco industry has been reviving snuff and chewing tobacco, two products that had fallen in popularity over the last few decades. There is a widely held myth that smokeless tobacco is a safe alternative to cigarettes, when actually it is just as dangerous as smoking.

Smokeless Tobacco More Toxic Than Cigarettes, Study Says

In a new study, researchers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that adults who used only smokeless tobacco had higher levels of nicotine concentrations in their system as well as higher concentrations of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, compounds linked to higher cancer risk.

Smokeless tobacco products flying under the radar of regulation in many countries

Smokeless tobacco products are addictive and cause cancer, yet only a few countries have adequate policies to regulate them. As a result, the global efforts to control smokeless tobacco use are lagging behind the progress made in curbing cigarette consumption.

Smokeless tobacco, sport and the heart

Smokeless tobacco (snuff) is a finely ground or shredded tobacco that is sniffed through the nose or placed between the cheek and gum. Chewing tobacco is used by putting a wad of tobacco inside the cheek. Smokeless tobacco is widely used by young athletes to enhance performance because nicotine improves some aspects of physiology. However, smokeless tobacco has harmful health effects, including cardiovascular disorders, linked to nicotine physiological effects, mainly through catecholamine release. Nicotine decreases heart rate variability and the ventricular fibrillation threshold, and promotes the occurrence of various arrhythmias; it also impairs endothelial-dependent vasodilation and could therefore promote premature atherogenesis.

Studying Snus, a Smokeless Tobacco From Sweden

The warning label on cans of Swedish snus sold in the United States says that “this product can cause mouth cancer” and cautions that it “is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.” Swedish Match, the company that sells snus, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to soften its warning label. How accurate is the current warning? How dangerous is Swedish snus? The short answer is that snus appears to increase the risk of mouth cancer and some other cancers, but modestly in comparison with the array of lethal risks posed by smoking

The growing threat of smokeless tobacco: Health risks and rising usage

The National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) says that a key challenge in tackling tobacco use is that smokeless tobacco products are low-cost, widely available, and accessible even to minors. Additionally, these products fail to meet regulatory standards.

The Perils of Smokeless Tobacco

The makers of smokeless tobacco products like to claim that their products are safer than cigarettes because users don’t inhale the tars and toxic chemicals from burning tobacco. Of course, they play down other harms and risks, which are also potentially dangerous. For federal regulators, protecting public health will require looking beyond the smoke to other hazards.

The Reasons for Using Smokeless Tobacco: A Review

The prevalence of smokeless tobacco is a public health problem globally and has reached a warning level in some southeast Asian countries. Although the prevalence of cigarettes is higher than smokeless tobacco in some European countries but there is an increasing trend in the world. Smokeless tobacco use is the leading cause of deaths and increasing the burden of disease in poorer parts of the low-income countries.

Tobacco and baseball have a long, shared history. Is Zyn the latest chapter?

Although some baseball players claim that they are using oral nicotine pouches as a tool to quit smokeless tobacco, which has a long history with the sport, the FDA has not authorized the sale of any oral nicotine pouch product, including Zyn, for help with quitting. When athletes use these products on the field or during interviews, they are acting as unpaid spokespeople for the tobacco industry – which could influence young fans.

What’s That in Your Mouth, Bro?

Zyn nicotine pouches have become a new symbol of American masculinity — and a surprising political lightning rod.