Page 23 - TOB Magazine March/April 2013

48
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2013
Speaking Up for Smokeless
Dr. Brad Rodu outlined the harm reduction potential
of smokeless tobacco.
“Smokeless tobacco is 98 percent safer than smoking,”
Brad Rodu, professor, Department of Medicine,
James Graham Brown Cancer Center at University of
Louisville, told TPE attendees. “There is no risk for
emphysema; you can’t get lung disease without pulling
smoke into your lungs. And the mouth cancer risk for
lifetime use of smokeless tobacco is tiny—extremely
small.”
In a session dedicated to the debate around
encouraging smokers to switch to smokeless tobacco,
Rodu spoke in favor of the life-saving potential of the
category, pointing out that smokeless is a more effective
alternative to traditional tobacco than other smoking
cessation options.“Nicotine gum and patches, according
to meta analyses (those are studies of studies), work for
7 percent of smokers [trying to quit],” he noted. “That
is a 93 percent failure rate. What other product does
[the] FDA regulate that has a 93 percent failure rate
that is called efficacious and modest? I can’t think of
one.”
“Smokeless
tobacco is
98 percent
safer than
smoking.”
“... And the mouth
cancer risk
for lifetime use
of smokeless
tobacco is tiny—
extremely small.”
TPE 2013 Takes...