Sound familiar?

[TropicalBob]

News story on snus posted on my favorite snus forum:

As R.J. Reynolds prepares a national marketing campaign for the company's new smokeless-tobacco product, dubbed 'Camel Snus,' public-health experts say that not enough is known about the possible harmful effects of products being positioned as an alternative to smoking, the Washington Post reported Nov. 23.

Snus is a tea bag-like pouch of steam-pasteurized smokeless tobacco that consumers can tuck between their cheek and gum to deliver a hit of nicotine. R.J. Reynolds plans to launch the marketing campaign for Camel Snus early next year, and at least two other U.S. tobacco companies are test-marketing snus.

But Dorothy Hatsukami, director of the Tobacco Use Research Center at the University of Minnesota, said information about nicotine absorption and toxicity for tobacco products is lacking, and that there is not enough data on snus to make per-dose comparisons to cigarettes or spit tobacco.

"I think we're all holding our breath in terms of what's going to be coming down the pike," Hatsukami said. "There's not much known about these products -- what's in these products, how they're going to be used, who's going to be using them and what the effects of that use will be … Will it create more harm or less harm?"

Researchers at West Virginia University recently tested Camel Snus and found at least two carcinogens. "It's not like chewing gum. This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes," said Robert Anderson, deputy director of West Virginia University's Prevention Research Center.

Experts worry that Snus will be particularly attractive to children with its brightly colored tins and names like "frost" and "spice," and that adults will have a tough time monitoring children's use because the product is easy to conceal.

[breakfastchef]

"Good Grief"...Charlie Brown

[Nuck]

It is starting to look like China has more freedoms than North Americans. We really need more people to get angry.

[Kitabz]

Experts worry that Snus will be particularly attractive to children with its brightly colored tins and names like "frost" and "spice," and that adults will have a tough time monitoring children's use because the product is easy to conceal.

These so-called experts just make me exasperated.
They basically kill off smoking so we all just go and find alternatives which have absolutely no effect on other people and they're still not happy.

What exactly is kid-attractive about "frost" and "spice" they sound like two regular nouns to me? Maybe BT they should just market these products in monochrome packaging and call them "dog" and ".....".

EDIT - just to be really controversial here, why shouldn't kids be allowed to use smokeless nicotine if they want to (they certainly do use smokeable nicotine (and other plants) - this we know for sure)? There's no age restriction on caffeine (and I speak as a life-long coffee addict since the age of about 12).

[surbitonPete]

While I was reading this thread an advert came on telly for 'niquotine 'Pre-quit'' lozenges that also come with a quitting 'plan'.....they seem to have changed the product name and the wording of these adverts lately. I know so many arguments go on here about the semantics of talking about e-cigs and I am wondering if they are also now trying to be more careful about the wording they are using to describe their approved 'quitting smoking' products because of the looming battle over e-cigs.

[Happy Jack]

It is starting to look like China has more freedoms than North Americans. We really need more people to get angry.

YouTube - Mad as Hell-Network the Movie

[TDM]

Is there a difference between snus and the old skoal bandits?? Sounds like the same thing

[breakfastchef]

It is starting to look like China has more freedoms than North Americans. We really need more people to get angry.

I believe it is more accurate to say that China has less regulation than North America. I recall attending a presentation by a big money manager from California who said the reason that companies open up shop in China and other parts of Asia is because there are looser environmental regulations. No corporation would admit that, would they?

Think about it. Whether you are a large multinational corporation from the U.S., Germany, Sweden, etc., why wouldn't you start a manufacturing center in a place that has very few regulations. If thrity percent of the cost of starting a manufacturing plant in North America, for example, was due to regulatory edicts, I could easily see why moving manufacturing anywhere else would be much more profitable. This does not mean the products are necessarily less reliable, but more profitable for shareholders. If you are not an investor, you would not understand my diatribe.

[katink]

This, just like the e-cigarette, has been / is being tested at Virginia University. Do some research on it. And on it's principle...
VCU's deal with the devil - Roanoke.com
VCU panel questioned about Philip Morris deals - Boston.com
Bacon's Rebellion: VCU and the Evil Weed
Oregon Hill Trani and Tobacco - Richmond, Virginia

[TropicalBob]

Oh Katink, what a devil's brew this mess is. And how do we escape it? VCU is under Philip Morris' thumb and PM will get that "anti snus" research it wants. That will allow the PM position on the board at the FDA, considering alternatives, to deny snus legal status in this country (it is banned in the EU, as you're surely aware).

We can also expect nasty reports on e-smoking as we now practice it, but praiseworthy reports on PM's Aria inhaler (when the company is ready to market it). Ban today's e-devices. Approve the Aria.

PM has bought it all -- a medical university, hospital, research facility, professors. And it has veto power over everything discovered while using its millions in donations. What a tragedy.

Here we sit .. a David who is clueless that Goliath not only is bigger but has an A-bomb at his disposal.