Chew It Over... Using Snuff to Stop Smoking
In a front page article from the Wall Street Journal dated September 16, 2006 discussed the idea of using snuff to quit smoking. For those who don't know what snuff is, you may know it as chew or rub, with brand names such as Skoal and Copenhagen. While many find the habit disgusting, it is being explored as an option for smokers who want to quit. A growing body of research shows smokeless tobacco to be less harmful than cigarettes, but it obviously poses other risks such as tooth loss, gum disease and mouth cancer. Another attraction to this idea is the elimination of second-hand smoke, one of the largest gripes of non-smoking coalitions, and public health issues in this arena. It must be highlighted that this research was funded by the U.S Smokeless Tobacco Company, but also by the American Cancer Society. Also in the artice, a 2002 statement from Britian's College of Physicians believed that the use of smokeless tobacco is anywhere from 10 to 1,000 times less harmful than smoking. All that said, I point to a later article in the Wall Street Journal dated September 27, 2006 found here.
My view is that this is interesting research worth publishing for the sake of public awareness. If a smoker who wants to quit, and can't do it with the patch or the gum, perhaps chew is the answer to at least allowing them to live a more healthy lifestyle. Of course, we must weight the opportunity costs here. Is it necessarily better to chew? What about the health risks posed by chewing? Would we see less healthcare costs (paid for by insurance, and worse yet the government through medicare/medicaid), or would we see them go up with mroe health problems posed by chew? Of course, noone is saying that chew is a positive alternative to smoking, but in extreme cases, this research points to chew as a way to quit. Weigh the opportunity costs, your personal views, and tell me what you think...
5 comments:
Growing up with both smokers and chewers, I find both habits disgusting. I don't think that there is a way to weigh the costs and benefits of chewing over smoking. Both result in harms like cancer and other diseases. While smokeless tobacco may be less harmful than smoking, it still provides diseases like gum disease and mouth cancer, plus the fact that a user's teeth become extremely stained. Also, neither of these two habits are attractive, especially spitting from the smokeless tobacco into an empty water bottle. I don't think that smokeless tobacco should be used as an agent to quit smoking. It may just provide more diseases than those you may already have from smoking cigarettes. It could also make the user switch from one addiction(cigarettes) to another(smokeless tobacco).
The argument makes sense to me. To get your kick of nicotine try rubbing instead of smoking. It would harm fewer people and it is "better" for you. It's like picking the lesser of two evils. As far as costs go, I'm pretty sure there are more hours of entertainment for the cost in a can of snuff versus a pack of cigarettes. However, I'm not sure if smokers would find rub as fulfilling. As far as medical cost go, I’m guessing they would go down. I’m basing this on the fact that there is no second-hand smoke associated with rubbing. Therefore a smaller amount of people would be affected with health risks.
Anyone who has rubbed snuff knows that it is just as addicting as smoking. I believe it is absurd to promote smokeless tobacco as a "healthier alternative" to smoking cigarettes. A public speaker came to my high school last year to express the devastating effects rubbing snuff has had on him. He was forced to undergo numerous surgeries to both remove parts of his mouth and jaw and reconstruct his face, that left him permanantly maimed. After seeing the visible destruction snuff has had on this man, I don't know how anyone could promote smokeless tobacco. Although it does not effect others as smoking does, the effect of smokeless tobacco on the individual is horrific.
The only real upside I see that snuff has against smoking is that snuff only affects the person who is actually doint it rather than smoking that affects the people around the smoker. Aslo snuff is cheaper to buy. There are still considerable health risks doing one of the two activities. While snuff may cause cancer in the jaw it is still better than lung cancer which is one of the most frequent kinds of cancer. So snuff may seem to have an advantage over smoking, I still feel that both habits are disgusting and wouldn't recomment any of the two.
I think that any kind of tobacco products are disgusting and need to be watched more closely. It seems that more and more younger kids are getting a hold of tobacco, especially chewing tobacco because people can not see what they have and they can do it while in a class room or in an public place as well. I think that it is a little better than cigarettes because it does not affect other people than you is doing it, but I think that there are more risks for cancer, because it affects the mouth as well as other cancers.
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