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Acute effects of use A
pinch of tobacco nasal snuff is sniffed up each nostril. For maximum
effect, it is sniffed up into the top of the nose, rather than merely
sniffing it into the nostrils. Depending on dose, nasal snuff produces
tingling, eye watering, a pleasant stinging sensation, a light
headedness and some increase in pulse rate, as with smoking a
cigarette, in other words, a recognizable nicotine hit, within 2 to 5
minutes. A two-finger pinch in each nostril should suffice. High levels
of blood nicotine are achievable with practice. Sneezing is a frequent
side-effect.
Nasal snuff takes away
the urge to smoke the next cigarette, within 5 minutes. See www.healthnz.co.nz/VASurges.htm
Legal status. There is
no ban on the import or sale of snuff for nasal use in New Zealand (NZ Customs letter to SmokeLess NZ, 2 June 06). Australia has banned snuff at Federal level,
and some states have not yet ratified the ban at last count-- South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and Northern Territory. Snuff cannot be advertised in New Zealand.
Ban on sale to
under-18s. Section
30 of the Smokefree Environments Act bars
sale or supply of tobacco products, including nasal snuff, to
under-18s.
Historical status. Nasal
snuffing was the most popular way to use tobacco in the 1700s in England and France, especially among upper class men
and women, and imported into NZ, mainly from Australia, comprising 0.1% of tobacco imports
up to about 1901.
Prevalence of use. A third of Lesotho women have used nasal snuff for
many years. See www.smokeless.org.nz/tobaccocancers.htm
Harmful
constituents. TSNAs in Swedish Match products are under
5 ppm, (personal communication, I. Wahlberg, Senior Scientific Officer, Swedish Match, 22 June 2006) and this snuff is no exception. TSNAs may be much higher in some products from
other countries.
Price Nasal snuff sold in New Zealand is likely to be less costly than
cigarettes or oral snuff. See
www.smokeless.org.nz/snus.htm
at Table 1
Tax status In New Zealand, nasal snuff is taxed at the loose
tobacco excise rate of 36 cents a gram. [On the basis of low risk, SmokeLess New Zealand argues that the tax
rate should be 5% of the 36 cents per gram loose tobacco rate, that is,
2 cent per gram. (see www.smokeless.org.nz/taxandrisk.htm
]
Nasal snuff
is not taxed in the UK.
Price, consumption, use and nicotine
intake
In
South
Africa where snuff was 25% of the price of cigarettes, 13% of
black women used snuff, while 5% smoked. Women using nasal snuff
sniffed it four times a day, using 50-130 mg of nicotine per day, equal
to the nicotine in 20 cigarettes.
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Long term risks of
use. Quitting
smoking is the safest course. There is little evidence for
or against nasal snuff. It is tobacco with virtually the same chemical
content as oral snuff, and so is likely to have much the same effects:
both are absorbed through mucosa with a rich blood supply. See http://www.smokeless.org.nz/oralsnuff.htm
Chemical content It contains 3.5 g tobacco, making up
63% of its weight, 19% is moisture, 11% paraffin as moisturiser,
4% potassium carbonate to regulate pH, and 3% flavour.
See www.smokeless.org.nz/nasalsnuff_analyses.htm
Nicotine is 0.7%, that is, 24.5
mg per can.
Risk of nasal cancer. There is inadequate evidence that nasal use of snuff is carcinogenic
to humans. One third of Lesotho women use nasal snuff; less than 1
per 100,000 Lesotho women per year develop nasal
pharyngeal cancer.
www.smokeless.org.nz/tobaccocancers.htm
Duration of use A year after stopping smoking, when
the danger of relapse to smoking has greatly decreased, nasal snuff
takers may wish to switch to nicotine gum or quit nicotine altogether,
as nasal snuff has not had a long history of documented relatively-safe
and widespread use, as is true for Swedish snuff.
Regulation of purity Nasal snuff in New Zealand is currently not subject to any
regulation for purity. In Africa, snuff containing high levels of
chromium (24 - 97 ppm) and other metals was
suspected to be the cause of high rates of nasal cancer in African
people in past years.3 Regulations are needed to bar all
snuffs unless low in nitrosamine and heavy metal levels, as are
products sourced from Swedish Tobacco or if manufactured from the same
tobaccos used in the manufacture of popular New Zealand cigarettes. See
Table 2 at www.smokeless.org/snuffregulations.doc )
Addiction status. Nicotine addiction is common.
Smokers take a fairly constant amount of nicotine each day, so smokers
who take snuff instead, will smoke fewer cigarettes. Snuff can and does satisfy
smokers’ nicotine needs.
Pharmacology. A single pinch of snuff can raise
the nicotine plasma level from 20 ng/mL (due
to previous snuffing) to 41ng/mL, an increase of 21 ng/mL
within 5 minutes, similar to the
levels found in heavy cigarette smokers - but snuffers attain
that peak more rapidly. Nicotine absorption from snuff was faster than
by oral absorption from non-inhaled cigar smoke.3 After a
single pinch of snuff, occasional
snuff users obtain a small (2ng/mL) increase within 8-17 minutes,
whereas daily snuff users
raised their nicotine level by 12.6 ng/mL,
similar to the
nicotine increase from a single cigarette obtained by a
heavy smoker.
Singleton Menthol (Swedish Match), as sold in cans of
6 g tobacco in South Africa, contained 1.8% of moisture, 0.6% nicotine
by wet weight, 99% of which was in free base form, at a measured pH of
10.1.5 Nicotine delivery is likely to be very high, but
plasma nicotine was not measured for this brand. One 6 g can lasts a regular South African user about 3 days.
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Conclusion
For stopping smoking, nasal snuff-taking is a useful
option for cigarette smokers who have tried and failed with nicotine
patches or gum. The more effective nicotine choices smokers have, the
more they are likely to succeed at quitting smoking.
Nasal snuff can be
made from cigarette tobacco
Tobacco from any of the ten popular brand cigarettes or
cigarette tobacco sold in NZ (except Marlboro) and shown in Table 1 of www.smokeless.org.nz/snuffregulations.htm
conforms to the Swedish Gothiatek
standard for snuff. A coffee grinder with a cylindrical burr can
convert the cigarette tobacco to the fine powder required. Paraffin, pH
buffer, and flavour can be added.
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Nasal snuff as a
second-line stop smoking aid
A case can be made for recommending that smokers not
successful with nicotine patch and gum, try
nasal snuff as a second-line stop-smoking aid.
As risk of nasal snuff use is likely to be similar to
that of oral snuff (about 1 less survivor per 1000 previous smokers who switch to
snuff at age 50-54 compared with quitting entirely6) and as
nasal snuff is legal to sell in New Zealand, Smokeless New Zealand believes
that…
health professionals have a duty to inform
smokers that
1) nicotine products provide the
safest stop- smoking method
2) snuffing,
though not risk-free, is much less dangerous than smoking. Switching to
snuff will reduce a smoker’s risks substantially. See
www.smokeless.org.nz/switchingtosnuff.htm
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