Most youth who use smokeless tobacco are smokers, too

By Anne HardingNEW YORK | Thu Aug 8, 2013 5:17pm EDTSOURCE: bit.ly/13INoAt Pediatrics, online August 5, 2013.  (Reuters Health) - Most young people in the U.S. who use newer smokeless tobacco products are smoking cigarettes too, according to new research. "These findings are troubling, but not surprising, as tobacco companies spend huge sums to market smokeless tobacco in ways that entice kids to start and encourage dual use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco," Vince Willmore, vice president of communications at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, told Reuters Health in an email. "From 1998 to 2011, total marketing expenditures for smokeless tobacco increased by 210 percent - from $145.5 million to $451.7 million a year, according to the Federal Trade Commission," he added. Swedish-style "snus," introduced to the U.S. in 2006, and dissolvable tobacco products, introduced in 2008, are arguably less harmful than conventional chewing tobacco because they contain fewer nitrosamines, and have been promoted as safer alternatives. But public health experts have been concerned that these products could serve as a "gateway drug" to use of conventional smokeless tobacco and to cigarette smoking. To better understand the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use among young people, Dr. Gregory Connolly of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and his colleagues looked at data from the 2011 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which included nearly 19,000 sixth- to 12th-graders from across the country. Overall, the researchers found, 5.6 percent of young people reported using any type of [...]

2013-08-09T12:33:36-07:00August, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

R.J. Reynolds Not Expanding Distribution of Dissolvables

Source: CSP Daily NewsDate: August 5, 2013              Camel Orbs, Sticks, Strips will remain available in current test markets  WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is limiting the marketing of its trio of dissolvable tobacco products: Camel Orbs, Camel Sticks and Camel Strips, reported The Winston-Salem Journal. The company has been testing the products in five markets for more than four-and-a-half years. Reynolds began testing the dissolvable products in early 2009. By comparison, it took only two-and-a-half years--from April 2006 to Oct. 2008--to take its Camel Snus products from test markets to national distribution. Reynolds spokesperson Richard Smith said the products will remain in limited distribution in Charlotte, N.C., and Denver at point-of-sale (POS) sites. "At this time there are no plans for any marketing beyond these channels," Smith told the newspaper. "We've found in our conversations with adult tobacco consumers that while there's strong interest in the category, a different product form may present a better option over the long term. Though for now, Camel Sticks, Strips and Orbs will remain available while we continue to gather learnings." Reynolds has carved out an important and profitable niche as the industry's leading manufacturer of innovative smokeless products, said the report. The dissolvable products are made of finely milled tobacco and come in flavor styles of fresh and mellow. The products last from two to three minutes for the strips, 10 to 15 minutes for the orbs and 20 to 30 minutes for the sticks. They [...]

2013-08-07T11:22:45-07:00August, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

A tough one to chew on: smokeless tobacco and teens

Source: Medscape Today Author: Mary E. Muscari, PhD, CPNP, APRN-BC, CFNS Introduction One would think that the mere image of a bulgy cheek spewing brown, foul-smelling goo would be more than enough to turn anyone, especially appearance-conscious teens, off of using smokeless tobacco (ST). But then, these media-savvy adolescents probably have discovered snus, a smoke- and spit-free tobacco. According to a recent article in Reuters,[1] the use of ST is on the rise among US teens, reversing a downward trend in tobacco product use by adolescents. The Reuters article cites comments made by Terry Pechacek, PhD, Associate Director for Science, Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a report to a US Congressional Panel. Among his comments is the suggestion that ST-using Major League Baseball® (MLB) players may be influencing young men to take up the cancer-causing habit. In his report, Dr. Pechacek noted that "the recent increases in ST use by adolescent boys and young adult men and the increasing dual use of cigarettes and ST products may portend a leveling off or even a reversal in the decline in smoking, the perpetuation of nicotine dependence, and continuing high levels of tobacco-related disease and death in the country."[2] Given this grim outlook, healthcare professionals need to kick up their fight against teen tobacco use by increasing their focus on smokeless forms of tobacco. Smokeless Tobacco ST (also known as spit, plug dip, chaw, rack, spits, grizz, [...]

2010-07-10T06:34:38-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|
Go to Top