Snus linked to still-births....

Well this is sad and i feel an obligation to get it out there and heed people to acknowledge the warning...

Pregnant women who use a smokeless form of tobacco known as "snus" may have a risk of stillbirth on par with women who smoke cigarettes, a large study of Swedish women suggests.

but this is where I get bothered....

"As studies like this and others come out," Connolly said, "I would expect the FDA will take action to help assure that pregnant women are protected from exposure to smokeless tobacco products."

story

how in the hell is the government going to 'protect' somebody from a product with 0 second hand effects, that you literally have to put in your own mouth to get any health effects from? this better mean warning label, but if it means higher taxes or more regulation i'm gonna be p****ed.

snus is the greatest smoking replacement ever created. there's no telling how many lives could be saved if this product was being promoted by the government, although i've seen some estimates in studies, for instance:

Of 142,205 smoking-related male US cancer deaths in 2005, 104,737 are smokingattributable. Smokeless tobacco-attributable deaths would be 1,102 (1.1%) if as many used smokeless tobacco as had smoked, and 2,081 (2.0%) if everyone used smokeless tobacco.

here

bottom line, this information about still births needs to get out. but in the last 2 years the price of snus where i live has doubled due to taxes, etc....which is not cool at all.

if we really want to respect health and choices we need to have a discussion about tobacco that acknowledges the difference between different ways of using and a serious emphasis on harm reduction, not just a one-sided hit list on each form of usage and the mantra "don't do it ever."