Snus is safe and e-cigarettes are miracle products

There were a couple of studies published last week that are worth bookmarking. They don't tell us anything we don't already know, but they contradict what a lot of people think they know.

The first looks at smokeless tobacco and oral cancer risk. It finds that the kind of smokeless tobacco widely used in Asia, such as gutkha, is strongly associated with oral cancer (partly because these products contain many other ingredients in addition to tobacco), but there is one notable exception.

 

Except snus, all SLT [smokeless tobacco] products sold in different WHO regions are strongly associated with OC [oral cancer] incidence.

Readers of The Art of Suppression may recall that snus was banned in the EU because it was assumed to have a similar risk profile to other smokeless products. It doesn't. Not even close.

The other study looks at a remarkable feature of vaping that I have mentioned before - its extraordinary ability to help people quit smoking even when they have no intention of doing so.

 

Overall, 12.7% of smokers quit smoking. Smokers not initially planning to quit within 6 months experienced higher odds of smoking cessation when they took up daily vaping (32.4%) versus no vaping (6.8%; adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=8.58, 95% confidence interval [CI]:5.06-14.54).

... Uptake of nicotine vaping appears to be strongly associated with cigarette smoking cessation among smokers with no initial plans to quit smoking.

 

The difference between a 6.8% quit rate and a 32.4% quit rate is enormous. The awesome power of vaping to get unmotivated smokers to quit deserves more attention, especially since only half of British smokers say they intend to quit.

 

Imagine being an anti-smoking campaigners and being opposed to e-cigarettes...