'Snus' smokeless tobacco product coming to Canada
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 8, 2007 | 3:03 PM ET
CBC News
Canada's largest tobacco manufacturer has announced plans to bring a new Scandinavian-style smokeless tobacco product called snus to the country and will roll it out in test regions across the country within the year.
Benjamin Kemball, Imperial Tobacco's president and CEO, said Monday in a speech before the Montreal Canadian Club that the new product is part of a larger strategy to become better corporate citizens.
Kemball said that snus has become extremely popular in certain regions of Europe. He also said snus has contributed to a drop in lung cancer incidences in Sweden.
"They're little tobacco pouches which you literally tuck under your lip — you don't have to spit, you'd be happy to hear," he said. "In Sweden the market for tobacco pouches is now larger than the cigarette market."
Smokeless tobacco still a health risk: anti-smoking advocates
But anti-smoking advocates say smokeless tobacco products still pose a risk to consumers' health. François Damphousse, director of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, said that while products like chewing tobacco are not combustible and do not produce second-hand smoke, they are still toxic products.
"Smokeless can also be a problem for mouth cancer, lip cancer and so on and so forth and should not be sanctioned by the health community," he said.
About five million Canadians, or 19 per cent of the population over the age of 15, smoke, according to Health Canada. A 2006 report by the Ministerial Advisory Council on Tobacco Control recommended investigating novel products, including snus, for people who are unable to curb their nicotine dependence.
