Tobacco ruling reopens debate on smokeless products
9/26/2006 New York, NY Lauren Foster msnbc.msn.com Big Tobacco had more bad press this week after a US federal judge ruled people who smoked "light" cigarettes in the belief they were safer than higher-tar alternatives could proceed with a nationwide class action. The news follows a recent study that found the amount of nicotine in US cigarettes rose about 10 per cent between 1998 and 2004, potentially making it harder to quit and easier to become addicted. The message was clear: smokers are getting more nicotine than in the past and may need additional help in trying to break their powerful nicotine addiction. In the US, home to 44.5m adult smokers, 70 per cent want to quit and 40 per cent make a serious attempt each year, but fewer than 5 per cent succeed in any given year, according to the National Institutes of Health. Worldwide, an estimated 5m people die every year from tobacco-related diseases, and health officials predict the annual death toll will double by 2020 if current smoking trends continue. Faced with these figures, some public health experts are looking more closely at smokeless products, such as Swedish "snus" and traditional moist snuff, as a way to reduce tobacco-related deaths and diseases. They suggest these products are a potentially less harmful way of delivering nicotine. "Five million deaths worldwide is unconscionable when some of those could be prevented by offering some safer alternatives to smoking, which we know is very dangerous," said Philip Alcabes, associate professor of [...]