Anti-smokers say the darndest things!

[Mordred]

No really, they do:

Use snus, you lose

I don't know what Jeff Stier is thinking, but using snus does not eliminate the risk of lung cancer ("Council Votes To Boost Butts," PostOpinion, Oct. 16).

Smokers who use smokeless tobacco as a supplemental source of nicotine in an effort to quit smoking actually increase their risk of lung cancer.

Smokeless tobacco, snus and e-cigarettes are not proven methods for quitting.

Clare Bradley

Chief Medical Officer ,American Cancer Society Eastern Division, Lake Success

Brilliant. Snus, of all things, should reduce your lung cancer risk to the same as non-smokers, unless for some obscure reason, you inhale the stuff. It's painfully obvious. Yet Clare here happily states the opposite: it INCREASES your risk of lung cancer.

Now, I could, when faced with this kind of bs, point out that this is classical straw-man fallacy, but I'm not sure I could refrain from physical violence.

[JohnnyVapor]

They might be conflating the issue with the theory that nicotine might increase cancer risk through interfering with the process of apoptosis, but that is just a theory, and I don't believe it's been proven in vivo.

I guess it's just more people on a crusade. It's too bad.

[Vocalek]

I love the comment that was left by "rw"

Dr. Bradley, thank you for your input but your statements about snus in particular (as a subcategory or smokeless tobacco) seem to contradict the research I have found concerning health effects, as studied in Sweden. Could you please provide a link to research to suppport your statement of snus usage increasing lung cancer risk? Thank you

[Vocalek]

Dr. Bradley: You might be interested in reading the article by Dr. Karl Philllips in Harm Reduction Journal 2009, 6:29doi:10.1186/1477-7517-6-29. He makes the very good point that for the average smoker, smoking for just one more month before quitting causes greater health risk than switching to a low-risk nicotine source and never quitting it.

Note: I have posted a link to Dr. Phillip's article here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/for...ternative.html