September 18, 2008 - Star Scientific, second quarter 2008, sales were down 23.6%. The company has hired Roger Grogman, former corporate vice president of marketing for the McLane Co. Inc., on an exclusive basis to consult with the company on marketing programs for its very low-TSNA dissolvable smokeless products, Ariva® and Stonewall®. Star recommends that the lozenges be used as a substitute for smoking when you can't smoke. Stonewall is recommended for heavy smokers (more than one pack per day) it contains approximately 4.0mg of nicotine and comes in 3-flavors: wintergreen, natural and Java blends. Ariva is recommended for smokers and contains approximately 1.5mg of nicotine and comes in one flavor: wintergreen blend.
Paul L. Perito, Star's chairman, president and COO, commented that the company believes Grogman's thoroughgoing knowledge of multiple product categories and business channels will provide significant value to the growth and expansion of the Ariva and Stonewall brands. "Roger's experience should complement nicely the inroads we have made in developing distribution with regional and national chains like Rite Aid, 7-Eleven, Food Lion and Smoker Friendly. In addition, though, we look forward to leveraging his expertise to enhance our efforts to communicate with adult consumers about the unique opportunity that very low-TSNA dissolvable smokeless tobacco offers to dependent smokers."
Note Star promotes these tobacco products as very low-TSNA dissolvable smokeless tobacco. Dr. Stephen S. Hecht, an internationally recognized expert on cancer-causing agents in tobacco, points out even with the pasteurization process used for the Swedish tobacco products does produce lower levels of nitrosamines than found in most American products, but the levels are not low. They are still 10-100 times higher than the levels of carcinogenic nitrosamines in any other consumer product. (Communication 1/25/2007)
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Reference: Star Scientific Hires Grogman as Consultant Augments marketing plan for Ariva, Stonewall dissolvable smokeless products, CSP Daily News, 9/18/2008.
"Note Star promotes these tobacco products as very low-TSNA dissolvable smokeless tobacco. Dr. Stephen S. Hecht, an internationally recognized expert on cancer-causing agents in tobacco, points out even with the pasteurization process used for the Swedish tobacco products does produce lower levels of nitrosamines than found in most American products, but the levels are not low. They are still 10-100 times higher than the levels of carcinogenic nitrosamines in any other consumer product."
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly are you trying to say? Hecht himself published a paper in 2005
http://www.e-cig.org/pdfs/TSNA-Study-in-Smokeless-Tobacco-Products.pdf
that demonstrates that Star's products' TSNA levels are 20 to 50 times LOWER than Swedish snus.
Years of demographic data show that snus is statistically "safe" as far as carcinogenic activity is concerned. Star's products cannot help but be "safer", and as I write Star has advanced versions of these products (Ariva BDL) that have undetectable levels (by current methods) of TSNA, with a petition before the FDA for them to become the first approved "reduced hazard" tobacco products.