Smokers misunderstand health risks of smokeless tobacco products: Study

Washington: Smokers often misunderstand health risks that come with consuming smokeless tobacco product, a recent study suggests.
While smokeless tobacco products are addictive, contain cancer-causing chemicals and are linked with cardiovascular and certain cancer risks, products such as snus, a kind of smokeless tobacco, have comparatively fewer health risks than smoking when used exclusively. This product can also serve as harm-reduction alternatives for smokers unable or unwilling to completely quit tobacco.
Published in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors, the study provides new research on what smokers think about snus.
Snus — a Swedish word for “snuff” — is moist powder tobacco that can be sold in a loose form or in small prepacked pouches that users place under the top lip for about 30 minutes. It typically spits free. The product is popular in Scandinavia, but newer to the United States.
In Sweden, snus use has been linked to a decrease in tobacco smoking and smoking-related diseases.
The researchers reviewed how 256 smokers responded to questions about their perceived risk of developing lung cancer, heart disease and oral cancer from using snus versus cigarettes, and whether there were subgroups of smokers with similar patterns of beliefs. More than 75 per cent of the participants smoked daily and about 20 per cent had tried smokeless tobacco.