moist snuff

New study shows a rise in smokeless tobacco sales, especially among youth

Source: UMass Medical School Communications (http://www.umassmed.edu/news)Author: Sandra Gray The number of smokeless tobacco products sold in Massachusetts is soaring, as are the levels of nicotine packed into many of them, according to a new analysis from UMass Medical School and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). “Nationwide, cigarette smoking control has been very successful and we have experienced a steady decline, but that success is being offset by the increased use of smokeless tobacco products, especially by youth,” said UMMS statistical scientist Wenjun Li, PhD. Dr. Li, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, co-authored the paper with colleagues from the DPH. Published in the journal Tobacco Control, the study examines ten years of product data (from 2003 to 2012) that Massachusetts law requires tobacco manufacturers provide to the DPH. Notable findings include a nearly 30 percent increase in the number of moist snuff products and a nearly sixfold increase in the number of snus products sold in Massachusetts; these increases correlate with rising use among high school students. Nationwide, more than one in eight males in the 12th grade uses smokeless tobacco. In Massachusetts, use among high school students has more than doubled since 2001. A wide variety of smokeless tobacco products on the market include newer inventions like dissolvable lozenges, snus and moist snuff, many of them flavored and colorfully packaged to appeal to youth, along with more traditional forms used by adults including chewing tobacco and dry snuff. Researchers were particularly interested in unionized, or [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-03-24T14:56:03-07:00March, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Star Scientific – filed application with U.S. FDA for approval to market a moist-snuff product

Source: snus-news.blogspot.com Author: staff Star Scientific, Inc. filed an application yesterday, February 2nd with the U.S. Food & Administration (FDA) for approval to market a moist-snuff product, Stonewall Moist-BDL™, as a modified-risk tobacco product (MRTP). The company believes that this is the first application filed with the FDA for approval of a tobacco product in a longstanding market segment. The data submitted in the application to the Center for Tobacco Products at FDA document TSNA levels in Stonewall Moist-BDL™ that are below limits of detection, or "BDL", by current standards of measure. Recent findings in the form of test results from an independent international laboratory validate the extraordinarily low levels in recently submitted samples of Stonewall Moist-BDL™, which the company believes are the lowest found anywhere in the world. The company pointed out that this application is particularly significant in two ways. First, moist snuff product sales accounted for roughly 75% of the total smokeless tobacco market in 2009. Moist snuff sales increased from 31,500 metric tons and $3.3 billion in 2004 to 37,990 metric tons and $4.64 billion in 2009 – an average annual growth rate of roughly 4%, and a 41% overall increase in sales over the six-year period. The moist snuff market segment has been well established for many decades, and is one of the oldest tobacco product categories in the United States. Second, tobacco-specific nitrosamine (TSNA) levels among the moist snuff products with the largest sales volume in 2009 averaged over 10,000 parts per billion in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-02-06T08:36:25-07:00February, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

New snuff low in carcinogens, Virginia company says

Source: www2.journalnow.com Author: Richard Craver A small tobacco manufacturer in Richmond, Va., said Tuesday that it has developed a moist-snuff product that has the lowest levels of carcinogens — in this case nitrosamines — in the marketplace. That includes "99 percent lower than the levels found in conventional American moist snuffs, such as Copenhagen or Skoal, and 90 percent less than the level found in current snus products," the company said. Star Scientific Inc. plans to apply soon to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to market the product, part of its Stonewall brand, as "modified risk" under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. That act gave the FDA the regulatory control over new tobacco products. Star applied last year to market its Ariva and Stonewell lozenges as modified risk. "Our company's belief and hope is that the FDA will give a robust look at the science of our application and other reduced-risk applications," said Sara Machir, the vice president of communications and investor relations for Star. The request is likely to stoke further debate between two sets of anti-smoking groups. One set says smokeless tobacco serves as gateway products for teenagers to cigarettes and discourages users from quitting. The other set says the products are a way to reduce the risk of tobacco use compared with cigarettes. Scott Ballin, the past chairman of the Coalition on Smoking or Health, said the debate "is more about competition, market share and profits than it is about [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-01-07T11:41:27-07:00January, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

As cigarette sales dip, new products raise concerns

Source: www.atomiurl.com Author: staff If he were conceived today, there might not be just a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He might also have, tucked into his pocket, a cellphone-size container holding a dozen pouches of snus. It rhymes with “goose,” (cynics might say “noose”), and is a Swedish type of smokeless tobacco that’s not your grandfather’s dip or chew. Snus comes in teabag-like pouches that a user sticks between the upper lip and gum, leaves there for up to 30 minutes and discards without spitting. As no-smoking laws sweep the nation and cigarette sales continue to fall, big Tobacco is alarming the public health community by devising other ways to try to make tobacco appealing. with smokeless products representing the only booming part of the U.S. tobacco market, snus is an effort to boost sales with a product that — unlike most smokeless ones — doesn’t require users to spit out the residue. Snus also represents something more: an attempt to move smokeless tobacco beyond stereotypical users such as baseball players and rodeo cowboys, and into offices or restaurants where people want a nicotine fix but can’t light up. “This is a growth strategy for us,” says Bill Phelps, spokesman for Philip Morris USA, the nation’s biggest tobacco company and maker of Marlboro, the top-selling cigarette. In Dallas this month, Philip Morris is launching its first smokeless product with a cigarette brand name: Marlboro Snus. R.J. Reynolds, second in U.S. tobacco sales, is expanding tests of its Camel Snus [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-05T13:08:02-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Developing smokeless tobacco products for smokers: an examination of tobacco industry documents

Source: Tobacco Control 2009;18:54-59 Authors: C M Carpente et al. Objective: To investigate whether development of smokeless tobacco products (SLT) is intended to target current smokers. Methods: This study analysed internal tobacco industry documents to describe research related to the smokeless tobacco market. Relevant documents included those detailing the development and targeting of SLT products with a particular emphasis on moist snuff. Results: Cigarette and SLT manufacturers recognised that shifting demographics of SLT users, as well as indoor smoking restrictions, health concerns and reduced social acceptability of smoking could impact the growth of the SLT market. Manufacturers developed new SLT products to target cigarette smokers promoting dual cigarette and SLT use. Conclusions: Heavy marketing of new SLT products may encourage dual use and result in unknown public health effects. SLT products have been designed to augment cigarette use and offset regulatory strategies such as clean indoor air laws. In the United States, the SLT strategy may provide cigarette companies with a diversified range of products under the prospect of federal regulation. These products may pose significant challenges to efforts by federal agencies to reduce harm caused by tobacco use. Authors: C M Carpenter1, G N Connolly1, O A Ayo-Yusuf2, G Ferris Wayne1 Authors' affiliations: 1 Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 2 Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-24T08:59:08-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Oral use of Swedish moist snuff (snus) and risk for cancer of the mouth, lung, and pancreas in male construction workers: a retrospective cohort study

Source: The Lancet, Volume 369, Issue 9578, Pages 2015 - 2020 Authors: Juhua Luo et al. Background: Although classified as carcinogenic, snuff is used increasingly in several populations. Scandinavian moist snuff (snus) has been proposed as a less harmful alternative to smoking, but precise data on the independent associations of snus use with site-specific cancers are sparse. We aimed to assess the risks for cancer of the oral cavity, lung, and pancreas. Methods: Detailed information about tobacco smoking and snus use was obtained from 279 897 male Swedish construction workers in 1978—92. Complete follow-up until end of 2004 was accomplished through links with population and health registers. To distinguish possible effects of snus from those of smoking, we focused on 125 576 workers who were reported to be never-smokers at entry. Adjusted relative risks were derived from Cox proportional hazards regression models. Findings: 60 cases of oral, 154 of lung, and 83 of pancreatic cancer were recorded in never-smokers. Snus use was independently associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer (relative risk for ever-users of snus 2·0; 95% CI 1·2—3·3, compared with never-users of any tobacco), but was unrelated to incidence of oral (0·8, 95% CI 0·4—1·7) and lung cancer (0·8, 0·5—1·3). Interpretation: Use of Swedish snus should be added to the list of tentative risk factors for pancreatic cancer. We were unable to confirm any excess of oral or lung cancer in snus users. Authors: Juhua Luo MSc a, Weimin Ye MD a, Kazem Zendehdel MD a c, Johanna [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-12-28T08:05:14-07:00December, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Free nicotine content and strategic marketing of moist snuff tobacco products in the United States: 2000–2006

Source: Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Authors: H R Alpert, H Koh, G N Connolly Background: From 2000 to 2006, moist snuff sales have increased and now account for 71% of the smokeless tobacco market. Previous research has shown that major manufacturers of smokeless tobacco products manipulated free nicotine, the form most readily absorbed, to promote tolerance and addiction. Aim: This study examines the possibility that company-specific and brand-specific strategies of the major moist snuff manufacturers involve controlling free nicotine content and ease of dosing with products that are designed and targeted to specific groups. This study looks at the current total US moist snuff market with product design data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; moist snuff use from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health; market data from ACNielsen; and magazine advertising expenditures from TNS Media Intelligence. Results: (1) The levels of free nicotine of moist snuff products have increased over time for several major manufacturers; (2) the number and variety of sub-brands have increased over time; (3) changes in design, as reflected by variation in free nicotine associated with pH or tobacco leaf, or both, have enhanced the ease and uniformity of dosing; (4) marketing through price and advertising has increased; and (5) youth use has increased. Conclusion: A combination of factors including brand proliferation, control of free nicotine and product design has most likely resulted in the expanded consumption of moist snuff, particularly among young people.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-28T21:27:41-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|