CHEW ON THIS: SMOKELESS TOBACCO IS NOT A SAFE ALTERNATIVE TO SMOKING AND VAPING.

Despite deceptive industry marketing, smokeless tobacco is not a safe alternative to smoking and vaping. The tobacco industry knows that people are catching on to the health risks of smoking so they are heavily advertising smokeless tobacco — which refers to loose leaf or ground tobacco leaves also known as chew or snuff — especially in rural communities.

The tobacco industry dangerously promotes smokeless tobacco as an alternative where smoking is not allowed, even though it carries the same dangers and risks as vaping and cigarettes.

Tobacco companies understand that rural communities value self-reliance and independence, so they package and advertise their products to depict images of headstrong cowboys, hunters and racecar drivers to make it seem like smokeless tobacco is part of the rural lifestyle. On average, the tobacco industry spends more than $1 million dollars an hour marketing their products.

“Tobacco companies have always aggressively marketed to rural communities, and it is up to us to enact the change needed to regulate the tobacco companies and protect our youth and our community,” said Shelly Brantley, Project Director of RISE (Rural Initiatives Strengthening Equity), the Statewide Rural Coordinating Center. “We cannot allow Big Tobacco to target our communities and push harmful products on us. Tobacco doesn’t define our community — we do. Use of smokeless tobacco products only puts our community at risk of negative health outcomes.”

In the 2019-20 California Student Tobacco Survey, students at rural and town schools had rates of smokeless tobacco use that more than doubled those of students in city or suburban schools.

Big Tobacco’s use of kid-friendly flavors has made smokeless tobacco products even more popular, especially among young people. Internal company documents show that the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company has strategically used flavors to addict new users, with advertisements for smokeless tobacco products often featuring flavors as a selling point. It’s no surprise that more than half of 12 to 17-year-olds who had ever used smokeless tobacco used flavored smokeless tobacco the first time they tried the product, according to one survey.

New flavored oral tobacco products like Zyn, On!, and Velo have also hit the market, contributing to increased smokeless tobacco and nicotine consumption, particularly among youth. Snus – a type of smokeless tobacco pouch that doesn’t need to be spit when consumed – comes in flavors, like menthol. A recent survey reported that more than 80% of youth ages 12 to 17 who had ever used snus indicated that the first type of the product they used was flavored. Unlike snus, however, oral nicotine pouches and lozenges do not contain leaf tobacco, but are still derived from tobacco and contain nicotine, which is dangerous in any form.

“We cannot allow Big Tobacco to target our

communities and push harmful products on us. Tobacco doesn’t define our

community — we do. Use of smokeless tobacco products only puts our

community at risk of negative health outcomes.”

High rates of smokeless tobacco use among young people are particularly dangerous, since a lifetime of nicotine addiction and disproportionate health outcomes can often result. A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine stated that “snuff use may be a gateway form of nicotine dosing among males in the United States that may lead to subsequent cigarette smoking.”

The truth is that NO type of tobacco is safe. We can’t let Big Tobacco continue exploiting our communities by pretending that tobacco is part of our culture. Our kids — and all of us — deserve better.