Source: www.upi.com
Author: staff

A Swedish tobacco company adds a substance to snuff products to heighten dependency, an investigative report concluded.

The usual level for snuff or ‘snus’ is eight milligrams per gram but double that amount was found in one product produced by Swedish Match, the news program Kalla Fakta reported. The report alleges that Swedish Match added a substance known as E500 which raises “free” nicotine to increase craving. The tobacco company denies any wrongdoing.

“There is no secret substance in snus,” spokesman Henrik Brehmer said regarding the use of E500. “We use it to stabilize the pH value in snus and have done so for 200 years.”

Brehmer rejected an assertion by Harvard School of Public Health Professor Greg Connolly Swedish Match is deliberately using the substance to addict consumers.

“In a study in 2008 he concluded that we are manipulating the pH value, something that we consider hugely speculative,” Brehmer said.