Karolinska Institution finds twice risk of pancreatic cancer when using moist snuff (snus)..

May 10, 2007 - Karolinska Institution researchers found when looking at 300,000 male construction workers that the use of moist snuff (snus) run twice the risk of developing cancer of the pancreas - the most deadly of all cancers. A recent study in the journal Tobacco Control(TC) found that men who switched from cigarette smoking to spit tobacco products had a higher risk of dying prematurely from tobacco-related disease than former smokers who stopped using all froms of tobacco (TC, 16:22-28, 2007). Gilbert Ross, M.D., Medical Director of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has come out in the favor of smokeless tobacco products. He claims that the time has past for anyone to argue that smokeless tobacco poses enough serious health risks that its use as an aid to cessation should be censored (Smokeless Tobacco Lacks Significant Health Effects, HealthFactsandFears.com, May 9, 2007). Ross cites the work of Dr. Brad Rodu's endo1wed chair at Louisville (in tobacco harm reduction research) and his research funding were created by tobacco companies: U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and Swedish Match AB, who have committed nearly $3.4 million. Can an opinion from ACSH be trusted?? ACSH has sided with big business in virtually every controversy involving corporate interests versus public health. ACSH issued a report in 1991 stating that there is no proven link between heart disease and a diet high in fat and cholesterol. As brought out by Surgeon General Richard Carmona at this time, any public health recommendation that positions smokeless tobacco as a safer substitute for cigarettes or as a quitting aid would be premature and dangerous. Our highest priority has to be keeping children from beginning to use tobacco products.