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About a week ago, I attended a workshop that went over some of the new tobacco products available. Afterwards I realized that as a parent and prevention educator I knew very little about the newest tobacco products that are produced to lure our children into nicotine addiction. Like many parents, we think of cigarettes and chewing tobacco (snuff). Growing up in a smoke-free house, tobacco products weren't something I kept up on and even if you do come from a family that smokes, they still may only use cigarettes or chewing tobacco.
If you think that trying to keep your kids from smoking cigarettes, little cigars or chewing tobacco was hard enough, the tobacco company is making it even harder for parents to prevent their youth from becoming addicted to nicotine. The smell of cigarettes, spitting out chewing tobacco, smelly hands and clothes is no longer an issue.
With smoking bans becoming more common, tobacco companies are creating various forms of tobacco that don't require burning. Chewing tobacco and snuff have been available for decades, but new products hitting the market raise a number of concerns, namely risks of tobacco poisoning in children and general appeal to youth.
The tobacco industry is now starting to market new dissolvable nicotine products. These products are still addictive and come with risks but no smoke. So by using these products you would quit smoking but just expose yourself to new problems like tongue, lip and other oral cancers.
These alternatives to cigarettes are called Camel Sticks, Camel Orbs and Camel Strips are made from tobacco that has been finely milled and food grade binders hold them together. They can be held in the mouth or broken into a small piece and nestled between the gum and lip similar to snus or chewing tobacco (snus is ground tobacco in a pouch). But with these dissolvable nicotine products there is no spitting.
Compounding the problem, they come candy-flavored which may appeal to the teenage market. The tobacco makers have used child-proof packaging in an attempt to convince the general public that it is not being marketed to children. Most teenagers can open child-proof packaging!
The dissolvable snus was originally sold in round tins similar to the original type of snus. But teachers got wise to the fact that teens were carrying it in their pockets so the tobacco makers switched to cell phone shaped tins. Now if that isn’t advertising towards kids, I don’t know what is.
About a week ago, I attended a workshop that went over some of the new tobacco products available. Afterwards I realized that as a parent and prevention educator I knew very little about the newest tobacco products that are produced to lure our children into nicotine addiction. Like many parents, we think of cigarettes and chewing tobacco (snuff). Growing up in a smoke-free house, tobacco products weren't something I kept up on and even if you do come from a family that smokes, they still may only use cigarettes or chewing tobacco.
If you think that trying to keep your kids from smoking cigarettes, little cigars or chewing tobacco was hard enough, the tobacco company is making it even harder for parents to prevent their youth from becoming addicted to nicotine. The smell of cigarettes, spitting out chewing tobacco, smelly hands and clothes is no longer an issue.
With smoking bans becoming more common, tobacco companies are creating various forms of tobacco that don't require burning. Chewing tobacco and snuff have been available for decades, but new products hitting the market raise a number of concerns, namely risks of tobacco poisoning in children and general appeal to youth.
The tobacco industry is now starting to market new dissolvable nicotine products. These products are still addictive and come with risks but no smoke. So by using these products you would quit smoking but just expose yourself to new problems like tongue, lip and other oral cancers.
These alternatives to cigarettes are called Camel Sticks, Camel Orbs and Camel Strips are made from tobacco that has been finely milled and food grade binders hold them together. They can be held in the mouth or broken into a small piece and nestled between the gum and lip similar to snus or chewing tobacco (snus is ground tobacco in a pouch). But with these dissolvable nicotine products there is no spitting.
Compounding the problem, they come candy-flavored which may appeal to the teenage market. The tobacco makers have used child-proof packaging in an attempt to convince the general public that it is not being marketed to children. Most teenagers can open child-proof packaging!
The dissolvable snus was originally sold in round tins similar to the original type of snus. But teachers got wise to the fact that teens were carrying it in their pockets so the tobacco makers switched to cell phone shaped tins. Now if that isn’t advertising towards kids, I don’t know what is.
The latest uproar is over R.J. Reynolds' smokeless product, Orbs, a dissolvable "mint" made of finely ground tobacco. It's criticized as appealing to children with its Tic Tac like appearance and sweet flavors. Other products include a tobacco stick that looks like a toothpick and thin strips that resemble dissolvable breath fresheners, and again they come in small packages/tins that look like cell phones.
Introducing nicotine into developing brains before the age of 21 ignites the addiction in young consumers, gaining the tobacco companies a "client for life." It would make sense then for them to target adolescents. However, due to legislative restrictions, tobacco advertising is limited. But the design of new products seems to have become a marketing method in and of itself.
With regard to the candy-like tobacco items, of primary concern are the thousands of cases reported where children under the age of six have experienced nicotine toxicity due to the ingestion of such products, as well as more traditional forms of tobacco. At high enough levels, nicotine ingestion in small children can be fatal.
Most adult smokers absorb 1.0-2.0 mg of nicotine per cigarette. Although the tobacco pellets only contain 0.83 mg of nicotine, the levels of alkalinity interact in the body in such a way that yields a delivery to the brain of up to a whopping 3.1 mg of nicotine. Imagine how that could impact an infant or toddler, especially if they ingest more than one pellet.
At a time when many states have passed laws to prohibit smoking in bars and restaurants, this is just another creative way for the tobacco industry to come up with a way to profit and perpetuate the health hazards of nicotine. If you're smoking cigarettes now and want to quit as so many smokers do, know that thousands of smokers have done it before you and you can do too. There are many ways to approach it. You can find the right way and best way to quit smoking and stop exposing yourself to cancer and other health problems. You don't need dissolvable tobacco to do it.
Though most of these new products (except snus) have not reached Minnesota, they are being tested in Ohio, Indiana and several other states. It may only be a matter of time before they hit our market and our youth.
