Encourage Smokeless Tobacco Use Though Banned in Australia Since 1991..

January 5, 2008 - Dr. Wayne Hall, a professor of public health policy at the University of Queensland, and his colleagues argue that SNUS may be effective in helping some of Australia's 2.9 million smokers give up smoking. Hall feels that with legislative changes smokeless tobacco could be sold under the counter in pharmacies and doctors and quit lines could encourage inveterate (hard-nosed, long-established, deep-rooted) smokers to make the switch "as a way of reducing the harm caused by their tobacco use." How does the good doctor know that inveterate smokers will learn the art of snusing?? Unites States Smokeless Tobacco Company has been trying to market a SNUS product, Revel, since 2001 with little success. The Chief Operating Officer of this company, Murray Kessler has stated that "Nine out of 10 smokers that try smokeless still reject the product." Some tobacco companies are test marketing SNUS products (e.g., Camel SNUS, Marlboro SNUS, Skoal Dry) in the U.S. have had very little success. Dr. Lars E. Rutqvist, the Vice President for Scientific Affairs at Swedish Match (the world's second largest maker of snuff and chewing tobacco and market leader in Sweden - volume share of 90% at the end of 2006) tells us the drive in snus sales in Sweden has been in response to the smoking ban rather than the perceived advantage to user’s health. Compared to tobacco smoking very little is known about smokeless tobacco. Dr. John Britton, probably the foremost proponent in the British Commonwealth for the use of SNUS agrees that more research into the long-term health effects of SNUS would be helpful. (TobaccoWatch.org) Professor John Britton has also stated, "It's their (tobacco companies) job to sell as much tobacco as possible, so they will be targeting non-smokers rather than current ones, that's the worry." Here in the states we have entire grocery store chains getting rid of all tobacco products but down under(it must be the summer heat) they want to lift the ban and add another tobacco product. Let's not forget the American Cancer Society study of more than 116,000 men found that cigarette smokers who switched to spit tobacco products had a higher risk of dying prematurely from tobacco-related diseases than former smokers who stopped using all forms of tobacco. Click on image to enlarge..