Shocking: Medical News Today Says Snus Causes Cancer

Snus causes cancer? Here we go again. Yvette Brazier writing for anti-tobacco Medical News Today published yet another biased article with cherry-picked data, gaping information holes, and fuzzy logic attempting to show snus causes cancer.

Actually, it says all smokeless tobacco causes cancer but includes snus in the definition of smokeless…but doesn’t address snus again. That’s a sly way of establishing guilt by association, not facts.

This “study” asserts that the level of cotinine, the biomarker of nicotine exposure, was higher in exclusive smokeless tobacco users compared with exclusive cigarette smokers. What a shock!!!!

Nicotine from snus stays in the system longer while cigarette nicotine spikes higher but falls off quickly. Since it is doubtful the researchers allowed tobacco use in the lab, the cotinine levels of smokers would be logically be lower during the blood draws than that of smokeless tobacco and particularly snus users.

What they neglected to mention was that nicotine is not a carcinogen any more than caffeine is. Both are addictive cardiovascular stimulants; particularly nicotine concerning addiction. No one has ever died from Nicotine (or Caffeine) Cancer. Otherwise Starbuck’s would be required to print cancer warning labels on their coffee cups.

The other smoking gun they reveal concerns NKK. NKK is a TSNA associated with lung cancer. Since you don’t inhale NKK with smokeless tobacco…because it’s smokeless; the relevancy of supposed higher blood levels of NKK in smokeless users over cigarette smokers is specious at best.

There is no mention of the other 6K to 10K carcinogens which are created when tobacco is burned and inhaled into smokers lungs but are not present to any real degree in snus. In fact, the NKK issue is undefinable for snus since it lumps snus in with all forms of smokeless tobacco, some of which are very carcinogenic (think makla).

The only purpose to this article was to demonize smokeless tobacco and characterize, in our case snus, as more dangerous than cigarettes. All the “facts”, quotes, and extrapolations are deliberately designed to push an anti-all-tobacco agenda.

In the 45 years Swedish Snus has been regulated as a food product by the Swedish National Food Agency, there are no documented cases of Swedish snus as being responsible for any form of cancer, mouth disease or tooth loss. Sweden even removed the requirement for a cancer warning label on Swedish snus cans years ago!

Swedish Match has a Modified Risk Tobacco Product Application (MRTPA) pending with FDA to remove the cancer and tooth loss label requirements from General Snus sold OTC in US stores since both labels are inaccurate.

I can’t speak to all smokeless tobacco or even Camel SNUS, but Swedish snus has no place in this article except to use the cover of a medical article to forward the author’s own biased and inaccurate agenda.

Implying that cigarettes are less carcinogenic than smokeless tobacco, especially Swedish snus, is dangerous misinformation damaging to the public health. It makes me wonder if Big Tobacco sponsored this piece or its just yet another case of ideology-based lazy journalism.

Best Regards/Bästa hälsningar/Med venlig hilsen,