Dr. Lars-Erik Rutqvist; MD, PhD; is one of the worlds leading authorities on tobacco, snus, cigarettes and their implications on the health,  scientific and political fronts.  He is Board Certified in Medical Oncology and Radiation Therapy with a PhD in Clinical epidemiology.

From 2000 to 2006, Dr. Rutqvist was with the Karolinska Hospital and Institute where he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Oncology at Huddinge/Södersjukhuset.  Dr. Rutqvist joined Swedish Match AB in 2006 and today is Senior Vice President for Scientific Affairs.

The following excerpt from an interview Dr. Rutqvist gave a few years ago and shows his philosophy clearly on cigarettes versus snus:

Based on his long experience as a physician and researcher, Lars Erik Rutqvist is convinced that a pragmatic rather than dogmatic approach to harm reduction would lead to significant gains for public health.

"We know after all that half of smoking related deaths occur in middle age. The victims lose perhaps as much as 20 years of their life expectancy," he says. "In the light of these statistics, it is both counterproductive and irresponsible to adopt a moralizing tone. Dogmatic public-health representatives keep both the public and many doctors believing that it is as dangerous to use snus as to smoke. If that is what people believe, how are you supposed to motivate smokers to quit?"

In view of this situation, he sees one of his own main tasks as being to help make the full picture regarding what we know today about snus and smoking better understood among decision-makers, researchers, physicians and the general public. People must be given a better opportunity to make a well-informed decision, based on facts rather than ideology. When asked what is his own most important health advice, he does not hesitate for a second:

"Give up smoking entirely!"