If you are looking at smokeless tobacco as safer alternative to smoking then you are keeping yourself in the dark, claims a new study after analyzing data from six studies, which included 182 smokeless tobacco users and 420 smokers who were trying hard to cut down their tobacco consumption level.
Researchers came up with this conclusionafter they found levels of cancer-causing chemicals were either equal or higher in those using smokeless tobacco when compared with tobacco smokers. This study clearly indicates that smokeless tobacco can bring more harm than cigarette smoking. Giving air to similar views researchers, which also include Steven Hecht, PhD. of the University of Minnesota’s, write:
Our results raise serious questions about the strategy of using smokeless tobacco as a substitute for cigarette smoking.
Findings of this study, seems to be refuting the common assumption, which dubs smokeless tobacco use as less harmful than smoking, which must be looked upon as a good sign in the formation of tobacco-free world. Smokeless tobacco contains around 28 carcinogens, which are known to work as agents of deadly cancer.
According to an estimate, there are around 9.6 million people in the United States with smokeless tobacco addiction, out of which 90% are males. However, in the recent years, this addiction has sprawled abysmally over the female community too, which gets confirmation from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. As per the findings of this survey, in 1998, 0.5 percent of females over the age of 12, about 573,000, were current users of smokeless tobacco products.
In the present scenario, it becomes clear that basic assumption, which works as a driving force behind rise in the smokeless tobacco use is that people take is as a safer substitute for smoking. Therefore, here lies the need for changing this misperception.
Via: Webmd