Reducing the Harm from Tobacco

Swedish-style snus, a smokeless tobacco product, are much less hazardous to your health than cigarettes. Yet in most of Europe, they are banned, supposedly on health grounds, even while cigarettes (which generate large amounts of tax revenue for the government) are legal.

Imperial Tobacco is now planning to market this reduced-harm product in Canada, as way of offering smokers a less harmful way of satisfying their nicotine habit.

In the United States, such reduced-harm tobacco products will face additional hurdles if the Congress, as expected, passes a bill subjecting the tobacco industry to FDA regulation. That has drawn criticism on health grounds. The FDA tobacco regulation bill has also drawn other objections, such as claims it would violate international trade treaties.