Tobacco companies are lobbying the European Union to lift a ban on a smokeless alternative to cigarettes that could evade the incoming smoking ban in England, The Times has learnt.

An oral snuff, known as snus, could satisfy people determined to get a nicotine fix while avoiding the most serious health dangers of cigarettes and the smoking bans in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, which will spread to England on July 1.

Unlike chewing tobacco or smoking, snus does not increase rates of oral or lung cancer, according to research published online this week by The Lancet medical journal.

Users of the moist snuff were found to have increased risks for cancer of the pancreas, however.

Snus – pronounced snooze – is popular in Scandinavian countries that have avoided an EU ban on oral snuff.

Companies such as British American Tobacco (BAT), Reynolds American, Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris are diversifying into smokeless products and have called for changes to the ban, which is under consideration in Brussels.

Antismoking groups and the Royal College of Physicians also support snus as an alternative to cigarettes.

Tucked between the gum and upper lip, the moist tobacco produces a juice that can deliver a bigger dose of nicotine than a cigarette.

Small bags of tobacco were banned in Britain in 1990 after the US Smokeless Tobacco company tried to introduce sweet-flavoured tobacco capsules called Skoal Bandits. It was feared that they would appeal to children.

The ban was supplanted by EU-wide legislation two years later. However, Sweden, which negotiated an exception, has found that snus use has increased and cigarette consumption has fallen.

Smoking in public places was outlawed in Scandinavia three years ago. In Sweden almost a third of former smokers say that snus helped them to give up.

For the Lancet study, researchers analysed 280,000 Swedish construction workers on their tobacco consumption habits between 1978 and 2004.

Compared with participants who had never smoked, the snus-takers had about the same level of risk for oral cancer and slightly less risk of lung cancer.

Cigarette smokers, though, faced nearly ten times the risk of lung cancer and more than twice the risk of oral cancer compared with nonsmokers.

The authors of the Lancet study emphasised that their findings were “at odds” with the perception among snus-users that their habit is harmless. Snus-users were twice as likely as nonsmokers to develop pancreatic cancer. But smokers were three times more at risk of this disease compared with the nonsmoking group.

Snus has also been implicated in gum recession and pregnancy complications. BAT said: “In health terms it is better not to smoke or use snus at all, but we want to offer informed adults the chance to enjoy a less harmful form of tobacco.”

The royal college said: “Some manufacturers want to market smokeless tobacco as a ‘harm reduction’ option, and they may find support for that in the public health community.”

The Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks is expected to report back to the EU Commission next month.

Getting a fix from the weed

—Chewing tobacco is one of the oldest ways of consuming it. Native Americans chewed the plant leaves, which were mixed with lime to enhance their taste. They also smoked it in pipes for ceremonial and medicinal purposes

—Until the 1800s, tobacco was produced mainly for pipe-smoking, chewing and snuff, a smokeless tobacco product which is either sniffed or dipped

—Tobacco rolled in a tube of paper as a cigarette, as opposed to cigars, is thought to have first appeared during the Crimean War of 1853-1856 when it was introduced to British soldiers by the Turks

—Another type of snuff, known as creamy snuff, is marketed towards women in India and consists of tobacco, clove oil, glycerin, spearmint, menthol, and camphor

Source: Times database

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