At least 90% less likely to die than cigarette smokers

Wednesday, July 26th, 2017

As cigarette consumption falls, tobacco companies want U.S. regulators to bless smokeless tobacco as a safer alternative to smoking:

Many scientists agree that moist, smokeless tobacco, including chewing and dipping tobacco, is significantly less harmful than cigarettes. But rather than encouraging the country’s 37 million smokers to switch to less risky products, U.S. health officials have so far stuck with an abstinence-only message in communications with the public.

Online fact sheets published by the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute list multiple health risks associated with smokeless tobacco—including cancers of the mouth, esophagus, and pancreas—but give no indication it is less harmful than cigarettes. “There is no safe form of tobacco,” the cancer institute says on its website.

Tobacco Mortality

At recent scientific conferences, Altria has presented an analysis of two federal surveys showing that users of moist, smokeless tobacco were at least 90% less likely to die over the course of the surveys than cigarette smokers. The U.S. data included nearly 387,000 survey respondents. Altria now is preparing this analysis for submission to an academic journal.

Comments

  1. Redan says:

    Smoke or smokeless, don’t expect to kiss me with that mouth!

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