Vapouround magazine ISSUE 11 | Page 32

NEWS WHAT CAN THE VAPING WORLD LEARN FROM SNUS? By Marina Murphy, BAT MANY OF YOU MAY BE FAMILIAR WITH THE GENERAL EU BAN ON SNUS, A BAN ENACTED IN 1992 THAT STILL PERSISTS TODAY. SNUS THE ONLY TOBACCO PRODUCT BANNED IN THE EU, DESPITE DECADES OF RESEARCH DEMONSTRATING THAT ‘SNUSING’ IS SUBSTANTIALLY SAFER THAN SMOKING. ONE OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR RETAINING THE BAN IS THAT SNUS IS A GATEWAY TO SMOKING – SOUND FAMILIAR? However, let’s take a look at the one country in the EU where snus is not banned – Sweden. Sweden has the lowest smoking rates and the lowest lung cancer rates in Europe - only 8% of men smoke every day, compared to a 25% EU average - and many authorities have cited the widespread availability of snus as a key factor in Sweden’s low smoking levels. Meanwhile in the world of e-cigarettes, we constantly hear that like snus, e-cigarettes are a gateway device. And much like in the case of snus, more and more evidence is emerging that this hypothesis is weak. A team of US researchers recently analysed the findings of several previous studies and have found the evidence suggesting a link between vaping and future smoking is weak at best. And in another study conducted by our scientists at British American Tobacco, a computer model designed to predict future trends showed that when e-cigarettes are available, by 2050 the 32% of smokers in the UK that otherwise would have continued smoking had switched to e-cigarettes. The possibility that e-cigarettes are a way out of—not a way into—smoking should come as no surprise given the Swedish snus story. And the snus story promises to get even more interesting. “Brexit offers the UK hope of sane harm reduction strategy in which snus is relegalised”, according to Chris Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, which is why the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) in the UK went to the European High Court in January to try to overturn the ban. Professor Gerry Stimson, chair of the NNA, says ‘We want snus to be legalised because snus saves lives. The human cost of the European Union ban on snus is millions of lives lost prematurely across Europe.’ The NNA case will be discussed at the upcoming Global Forum on Nicotine, Warsaw 15-17th June along with the latest scientific assessments of the impact of snus. Watch this space! WHAT IS SNUS? So what is snus? It is very different to e-cigarettes! It’s oral tobacco that can come loose or in a pouch and it releases nicotine when tucked under the lip or cheek. It’s been banned generally across the EU since 1992, but the availability and acceptance of this product in Sweden helped drive down smoking there to the lowest levels by far in Europe. In fact, the proportion of Swedish men aged between 30 and 44 who smoke fell to just 5% in 2016, partly because many have switched to snus. Overall just 8% of Swedish men (and 10% of women) smoke daily, compared with the EU average of just over 25%. According to an article in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health if snus was not available many more people might have continued to be cigarette smokers. The authors estimated if the Swedish smoking prevalence was extrapolated to the rest of the EU, there would be a 54% reduction of male mortality from lung cancer. Researchers in Norway, too, have shown that snus there is used to stop smoking, reduce smoking, and avoid starting in the first place. E-cigarettes, they say, could have the same effects, depending on how they are regulated. Snus is surely a prime example of how providing safer, socially acceptable alternatives to smoking can encourage quitting. According to one study, switching from smoking to snus may offer reduced health risk similar to quitting smoking. E-cigarettes, like snus, may offer equally encouraging harm reduction potential. For example, Public Health England, an executive body of the UK Department of Health, estimates that e-cigarettes are around 95% safer than cigarettes, and the Royal College of Physicians in England has proposed that e-cigarettes be widely promoted as an alternative to cigarettes. 32 ISSUE 11 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE