The Scientific Rationale
According to the CDC, 45 million Americans smoke, resulting in 436,000 deaths annually from cancers, heart and circulatory diseases and emphysema. The price smokers pay in terms of reduced life expectancy is staggering; smokers live on average eight years less than do nonusers of tobacco.
Contrary to a popular misperception, all forms of tobacco are not equally risky. Although no tobacco product is absolutely safe, smokeless tobacco is vastly less hazardous than smoking. Smokeless tobacco use causes neither lung cancer nor other diseases of the lung, and users have no excess risk for heart attacks.
The American Association of Public Health Physicians estimated how many deaths would occur if all 45 million smokers INSTEAD had used smokeless tobacco, and these results are seen in the table.
Deaths Among 45 Million Smokers or 45 Million Smokeless Tobacco Users (1,2,3)
Disease
|
Smokers
|
Smokeless Tobacco Users
|
Cancer
|
159,000
|
2,668
|
Heart and Circulatory
|
138,000
|
0
|
Respiratory
|
101,000
|
0
|
Other
|
38,000
|
0
|
Total
|
436,000
|
2,668
|
Years of Life Lost
(Average)
|
7.8
|
0.04
|
The number of deaths from smoking is over 50 times higher than the number from smokeless tobacco use. In terms of life expectancy, smokeless-tobacco users lose only about 15 days on average, compared with the eight years lost by the smoker (3).
Another major health benefit: smokers who switch to smokeless tobacco produce no passive smoke to harm others. The CDC estimates that 38,000 Americans die annually from diseases related to secondhand smoke. No one dies from the secondary effects of smokeless tobacco use.
For a detailed comparison of the health effects of smoking and smokeless tobacco use, see Dr. Rodu's 2006 and 2011 publications in Harm Reduction Journal.
References
1. Centers for Disease Control. Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs (SAMMEC). Available here.
2. Nitzkin JL, Rodu B. (2008). The case for harm reduction for control of tobacco-related illness and death. Resolution and White Paper, American Association of Public Health Physicians. Available here.
3. Rodu B, Cole P. (1994). Tobacco-related mortality. Nature 370: 184. |
