Imperial Tobacco to test market smokeless product banned in Europe
9/13/2007 Edmontaon, Alberta, Canada staff CanadianPress.com Imperial Tobacco Canada announced Wednesday it will test market a new type of smokeless tobacco in Canada called snus - and while the company is touting it as a safer alternative to cigarettes, it's been banned as a health risk in most of Europe. Benjamin Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial, said the powdered tobacco product will be sold at 230 retail outlets in Edmonton in the coming months to determine whether it might catch on with consumers. Users wad the moist powder between their lips and gum, where it dissolves. Kemball points to recent studies from Sweden, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia which suggest that snus is less harmful than cigarettes. "According to these independent reports, there is no increase to the risk of lung (or oral) cancer among snus users, compared to people who have never used any tobacco products at all," he said in an interview. "We should be looking at products such as this because if people are able to move away from cigarettes and to this sort of product, there will be a substantial reduction in risk to those people." The European Union banned snus in all countries except Sweden and Norway in 1992 after a World Health Organization report concluded that oral tobacco products were carcinogenic to humans. It's also banned in Australia. In 2004, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice upheld the European ban, ruling that the dangers of snus merited that it be outlawed. [...]