Smoking Cessation Health Center

Cancer-Causing Chemical in Smokeless Tobacco ID'd

Is Smokeless Tobacco the Lesser of Two Evils? continued...

"I would be concerned that people will think that taking this ingredient away would eliminate all risks and we do not know if that is true.”

Gilbert Ross, MD, medical director of the American Council on Science and Health in New York City, is an advocate of harm reduction and can see a use for smokeless tobacco, though. "Allowing smokers to get help in quitting their lethal addiction via safer nicotine delivery systems such as snus or e-cigarettes will reduce the huge toll of smoking,” he says.

Ninety-eight percent of tobacco-related disease is caused by smoking cigarettes, Ross says via email.

These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary, as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.