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'Click' can help you quit smoking easily
Patrik Hildingsson of Swedish Match with the new product.
IF YOU are a die-hard smoker, you are now forced to avoid cinemas. You just cannot light up in the lobby during the intermission. Neither can you smoke in public places such as parks, auditoriums and government buildings. Corporate offices relegate you to specific ``smoking zones'' and the boss frowns on too frequent smoke breaks. Air journeys within the country are now totally smoke free. The railways may follow suit.
Add to all these, the high-key campaign on the health hazards of smoking -- to which gutkha chewing has now been added -- and lighting up that cigarette is no longer such a pleasure. Cold-Turkey quitting has unpleasant withdrawal symptoms and so does abruptly dropping that tobacco chewing habit.
Here comes a product from Sweden, one of the most health-conscious Scandinavian countries, which makes quitting so much easier. Even used as a cigarette substitute, studies have shown it to be safer, with significantly low carcinogens and minus the tar in cigarettes, which is its most hazardous by-product.
The product is Click, which belongs to the Swedish ``Snus'' category, a ready-to-use oral tobacco pouch, which has a 200-year- old tradition in Scandinavian countries, especially in Sweden. The product comes in tiny pouches, covered by the same kind of paper as used in teabags. You tuck it under the upper lip on any side of the mouth, close to the gums and it can stay there for up to 20 minutes or more while you relish that ``nicotine kick''. You do not have to chew or spit afterwards. Just throw off the residue in a dustbin.
Currently it comes in sachets of two or a small can of 10 and each pouch of .3 g will cost about the same as a standard cigarette, and these come in Eucalyptus and Licorice flavours. After trial marketing since last April in Mumbai, it now comes to stores and kiosks in Bangalore.
Is ``Snus'' really a healthier smoking substitute? Patrik Hildingsson, Director, Swedish Match, the manufacturers, says, "Sweden is the only country to have reached the World Health Organisation's target of reducing cigarette smoking to less than 20 per cent of the adult population by 2000. Swedish `Snus' products have an important role in reaching this target.''
The European Commission has recognised that ``Snus'' has relatively less hazards to health and a new directive on tobacco labelling, endorsed by both the EC and European Parliament, clearly distinguishes between the health warnings for cigarettes and for smokeless tobacco.
The health warning for smokeless tobacco products has been changed to: ``This product can damage your health and is addictive''.
Among Sweden's 3.4 million men, "Snus" is more popular than smoking; about 20 per cent use it and 17 per cent smoke, the lowest ratio of smokers in Europe. This unique pattern of tobacco use has resulted in Swedish men having the lowest rate of lung cancer in Europe and also the lowest risk of dying from other smoking-related diseases.
The evidence that substituting "Snus" for cigarettes improves public health become more obvious when Swedish women are concerned; only two per cent of them use it and others smoke.
They are as likely as any others to die from smoking and their lung cancer rates are comparable with those of other European countries.
Two recent epidemiological studies did not find any link between the use of "Snus" and oral cancer. Of course, other tobacco-linked risks remain. But "Snus" could still be a better way of quitting smoking.
By K.Satyamurty
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