Source: wvgazette.com
Author: Alison Knezevich
In 2007, public health officials in West Virginia warned consumers about “snus,” ground tobacco packaged in a teabag-like pouch. Now, some lawmakers want to draw more attention to the growing variety of smokeless tobacco products.
A bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday would bar the sale of “dissolvable tobacco products” in West Virginia.
Sen. Mike Oliverio, D-Monongalia, said it was highly unlikely the bill would pass this late in the legislative session. But he introduced it to start a discussion about the increasing use of smokeless tobacco products among teens, he said.
“I just thought we should start a public debate,” he said.
Earlier this week, members of the teen anti-tobacco group Raze visited the Capitol for Tobacco Free Day, he said. Students from Oliverio’s district told him about new dissolvable tobacco products, which take the form of dissolvable sticks, strips, and tablets. The kids said some teens use the smokeless tobacco products while sitting in class, Oliverio said.
“It’s scary stuff out there,” he said.
One of the newest products are Camel Orbs, dissolvable tobacco tablets packaged like mints. They hit the shelves in January. So far, the product is only available in three U.S. cities, said R.J Reynolds Tobacco Co. spokesman David Howard: Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Ore. and Indianapolis. They are made of finely milled tobacco and food-grade binders, he said.
“These types of products, we believe, meet the needs of adult smokers,” Howard said.
Howard said such products let smokers use tobacco in places where smoking is prohibited – like restaurants and offices – while “meeting societal expectations.”
“There’s no spitting required,” he said. “They don’t have secondhand smoke. And they fully dissolve, so there’s no litter.”
When asked about health risks, Howard said he wasn’t aware of any studies specific to dissolvable tobacco.
“We are not making any health claims,” he said. “No tobacco product has been shown to be without risk.”
Dissolvable tobacco products are age-restricted, sold behind counters and contain warning labels, he said.
“It’s clear that these are tobacco products,” he said. “And they are marketed as such, and sold as such.”
If the smokless tobacco companies are so proud of the fact that they are “marketed as tobacco products to adults”, why do they make them look so much like candy? Put a package of Tic Tac’s next to a package of dissolvable Orbs, and they look identical, like candy. Why do they package them in a container the shape of a cell phone? So that a kid can keep them in his pocket without his teachers or parents knowing? Please. They have done everything they can to make these initiation nicotine delivery systems and addictive to our youth. The same tactics they have used for years.
Because the marketing of these products has been heavily done on the web via viral marketing – through blogs, social networking sites, and other mechanisms, many adults are completely unaware of their existence… but they are widely seen and interacted with by the younger population that is very web savvy.
As to the lack of harm, since we have done no studies on the impact of dissolvable tobacco products on perhaps the stomach or other digestive tract cancers, or even pancreatic cancers that one recent study linked to smokeless, – stating that there are no studies that show they are harmful is really a semantic bit of slight of hand. NO studies? YES, that is indeed true, but as to then being not harmful because there are no studies…. we just don’t know. THERE ARE NO STUDIES, so OF COURSE WE DO NOT KNOW IF THERE IS HARM. But because these products are unregulated, the manufacturers are allowed to take them to market before we know anything about their consequences to the population. We just have to look backwards at tobacco marketing in general to see the consequences of that. Tobacco is the single most preventable cause of disease in the world today, and the tobacco companies, knew what they were doing all along. It’s all about the money as always, and damn the health consequences to the public. Wake up legislators and the public, you are about to be taken to the health cleaners again, and decades from now we will be paying the price in medical issues and heath related bills, and our youth will continue to be addicted to nicotine via tobacco. The more things change with products like dissolvable tobacco and snus, the more they stay the same. For anyone that wishes to follow this comment advocating for these as harm reduction strategies as a nicotine replacement therapy, please address first (I believe in NRT by the way) why tobacco should be the delivery vehicle for the nicotine when there are multiple other harmless delivery possibilities.