Tobacco News Online

MICHIGAN CITY - A "snus" - rhymes with moose and goose - sounds like a new cartoon character or kids' cereal.
Actually, it's a tiny pouch of spitless tobacco similar to chewing tobacco, packaged 15 per tin.
It's one of the new line of dissolvable tobacco products being marketed as alternatives to cigarettes by R. J. Reynolds tobacco company under the Camel brand.
Although smoking is illegal if you're under 18, these products are intentionally designed to appeal to youth, according to Michigan City education and health advocates. Kelly Foley, site coordinator for the Safe Harbor and Hours for Hours programs at Edgewood Elementary School, has a collection of Camel dissolvable products she uses in the Tobacco Awareness Program for students who want to quit smoking.
Camel Snus come in menthol or mellow flavors and are available in Michigan City, according to Foley.
"You can go to a local gas station and you'll see the logo at eye level," she said. "By packaging it to look like candy, it's very confusing to a child to be confronted with a product like this."
Foley is concerned about the nearly three times higher nicotine levels in dissolvable tobacco products compared to cigarettes. She's particularly upset by Camel Orbs, small lozenges that come in "fresh" (minty) or "mellow" (original) flavor. Orbs were test-marketed in Indianapolis starting in January, as part of nationwide product research. They last about 15 minutes, Foley said, and each one packs three times more nicotine than a regular cigarette.
Her husband, who smokes about a pack of cigarettes a day, tried one of the Orbs.
"He said it was like smoking three cigarettes all at the same time," Foley said. "His experience was like he felt when he first started smoking. He got a head rush."
Camel Sticks, available in the "mellow" flavor, look like toothpicks. They can be broken in half and placed between the upper lip and gum, where they will dissolve in 10 minutes.
Camel Strips look like Listerine breath-freshening strips and last about three minutes. Packaged in tin boxes the size of a shirt pocket, dissolvables are promoted as alternatives to cigarettes when smokers are in a place where they're unable to light up. Given the products' convenience and similarity to candy and mints, users could ingest more than one at a time and possibly get a toxic dose of nicotine. The new products are not regulated by the FDA, so no product testing is required.
Sandy Gleim, executive director of Healthy Communities of La Porte County, said smokeless alternative nicotine products are just as addictive as cigarettes. Adults who use them shouldn't leave them laying around where kids can pick them up and pop them into their mouths, she cautioned.
"This is a concern," she said. "Young children aren't going to know what they are."
Gleim said most of the dissolvable tobacco products haven't yet arrived in this area, but she believes they will be sold on a more widespread basis. Foley was given the package of Snus by a high school student who was using the product.
"He's now a senior and has been chewing (tobacco) since he was a young kid," Foley said. "It was a socially acceptable thing in his household."
As smoke-free environments have become more prevalent, the dissolvables have the advantage of being a sort of stealth form of smoking.
"Nobody can complain about second-hand smoke," Foley said. "You don't have to sneak out of the office or spit."
During the eight-week Tobacco Awareness Program, Foley uses as many tricks as she can find to scare students about the negative health effects of smoking. Her visual aids include a set of diseased lungs, the Jar of Tar and a list of some 4,000 chemicals in each cigarette.
"What our program does is help kids make the decision of whether they want to make the commitment (to quit)," Foley said.
Foley quit smoking 24 years ago, after a bout of pneumonia, and likes to tell her students about how she put aside the money she would have spent on cigarettes. After a year and a half, she was able to take her family on a 10-day trip to Disneyland, she said.
"I ask them to figure the amount of money they'd spend smoking one $5 pack of cigarettes a day for a year," Foley said. "They can't believe how much money ($1,825) they'd spend. It helps the kids see that it's not only costing their health, but costing them money."
Foley said she's encouraged to find fewer young people using tobacco than when she was growing up. She will help mobilize a group of local teens who will lead the Tobacco Free Walk starting from Elston Middle School at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 10. Anyone in the community can participate in the event sponsored by Voice, Foley said. Voice is a student group that speaks out against the negative influence of tobacco companies on kids.