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About Smokeless Products

Smokeless tobacco products deliver carcinogens, mutagens and other toxins into the mouth and throat.

Smokeless is a large product category including:

• Plug
• Snuff
• Snus in long-cut, fine-cut, pouches, and other types.

"Smokeless" is also a smoking industry term. Some people refer to it as "oral tobacco".

Smokeless tobacco contains nicotine, an addictive drug found naturally in tobacco. An average dose of smokeless tobacco contains at least twice the amount of nicotine found in the average cigarette, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Smokeless tobacco also includes salts and other abrasive matter that may wear the surface of the teeth. Some products contain minute abrasives, which increase nicotine and carcinogen absorption into the cell membranes.

Smokeless tobacco products include those that are cured so that they have lower contents of one type of carcinogen called tobacco-specific nitrosamines. In Sweden, these snuff products are called "snus". Snus is packaged in miniature pouches like a tiny tea bag, and placed between the lip and gum. Snus products are now being test marketed in the U.S. (e.g., Camel Snus, Taboka and Marlboro Snus).

There are non-U.S. forms of oral tobacco such as Gutka -- blends of Betel nut, tobacco, and other flavors, plus limestone, sold in India.

• Chewing tobacco is a form of smokeless product. It comes in many forms such as plug, twist, and loose. It's often associated with that big cheek of baseball players during games.
• Dipping tobacco like Skoal and Copenhagen are also considered chewing tobacco even though they are not chewed.
• Snuff is a fine ground tobacco that is either taken orally like dip or snorted.
• Another type of smokeless PREP is a nicotine mint that also contains tobacco, called a cigalett or Ariva.

 According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, (http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0003.pdf) since 1970, smokeless, or spit tobacco, has gone from a product used primarily by older men to one used mostly by young men and boys.

As part of its scientific mission, TobPRAC will also review smokeless tobacco products and other unusual devices designed to deliver nicotine.

To find out more about smokeless tobacco and how to quit, please visit the following websites:

Medline Plus: A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

Familydoctor.org: American Academy of Family Physicians