FEATURE - Swedish tradition gives smokers substitute (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

FEATURE - Swedish tradition gives smokers substitute
by Mariam Isa
Date: Tuesday, 6/8/99

STOCKHOLM, June 8 (Reuters) - The old Swedish tradition of taking wet
snuff is getting a big boost in popularity from smokers who want to kick
the habit -- or avoid offending others with their cigarettes.

Called ``snus'' in Swedish, it is a smokeless tobacco product that
originated in Scandinavia but is taking off fast in the United States as
smoking becomes virtually impossible in public places.

``You can snus in the office, in the shower, or when you're sleeping. If
your girlfriend allows it, you can snus whenever you like,'' says Frederik
Hovsenius, a 29-year-old Swedish marketing consultant.

``It's great after a party when you've smoked too much because it doesn't
affect your throat or your lungs.''

Not to be confused with the type of snuff which is inhaled, snus comes
either loose or in small tea-bag type pouches which are placed between the
top lip and the gum and sucked.

WET SNUFF AN OLD SWEDISH TRADITION

An estimated 15 percent of Sweden's 8.5 million people use wet snuff. Ten
percent of those are women.

Producers say the habit has been around since early in the 19th century. A
European Union ban on the product upset Swedes so much the government had
to get a special exemption from Brussels to prevent the public from voting
``no'' in a 1994 referendum on joining the EU.

``The European ban was like dragging the Swedish flag through the mud --
people thought why should the EU interfere with a traditional Swedish
habit,'' said Stefan Gelkner, a top executive at the country's main
producer of wet snuff, Swedish Match.

``We have tracked the product back to 1820 -- it was originally the nasal
snuff used by upper classes all over Europe. For some reason it dropped
from the nose into the mouth,'' he said.

Wet snuff is one of the company's fastest-growing products, outpacing
cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco. Swedish Match says wet snuff sales
jumped by 24 percent rise in 1998 as a whole and by 27 percent during the
first quarter of 1999.

Sales in the United States, the only real market for wet snuff outside
Scandinavia, were up 70 percent in 1998, giving Swedish Match a five
percent share of that market.

Around 800 million tins of snuff were sold in the United States in 1998,
compared with 140 million tins in Sweden. But Swedish Match has virtually
cornered the domestic market, with an estimated 95 percent share. Some
people take snuff in Norway and Denmark, but not nearly so many as in
Sweden.

``We have seen a new pattern in the consumer profile in the past five to
seven years,'' Gelkner, who is head of Swedish Match's North European
division, told Reuters.

``Many people have quit smoking and switched to snuff. In many working
places or restaurants you are not allowed to smoke -- snuff is convenient
because you don't have to go outside.''

USER PROFILES DIFFER IN SWEDEN AND U.S.

The traditional snuff user in Sweden is male, and spread across all income
groups, including white collar workers. The entire Swedish ice hockey team
uses it, along with many politicians -- including a senior woman from the
Green Party, Lotta Nilsson Hedstrom.

But in the United States, the profile is more macho, with the product
popular among blue-collar workers or men who enjoy hunting and fishing.

Smokers say snuff produces a slow intake of nicotine into the bloodstream
compared with the faster rush from inhaling cigarette smoke. Non-smokers
who try the product for the first time feel giddy or even queasy.

Hard-core users prefer the original version of wet snuff, which is a
foul-smelling brown powder which is pinched into a ball before it is
placed into the mouth. An obvious disadvantage is that as it is sucked it
often begins to disintegrate, forming an unsightly dribble.

``I used snus once but I gave it up because it became an embarrassment one
day when I was teaching...it started to trickle down my mouth and I had to
spit in front of the class,'' said Salomon Bekele, a 30-year-old Swedish
journalist.

The Green Party's Hedstrom, 43, says she wants to give up taking snuff
because it has become an addiction.

``Like all addictions, it's an expression of emotional stress...it's less
harmful than smoking but it's not something I would defend,'' she said.

But for those who have no qualms about nicotine, an obvious advantage of
the product is that it is much cheaper than cigarettes. A 50 gram tin of
snus costs 21 crowns ($2.50), while a pack of 20 cigarettes costs 35
crowns.

On the negative side, there are concerns the product causes mouth cancer,
although many maintain there is no real proof. Every Swedish can is
stamped with a cancer warning.

``There is no evidence that snuff causes cancer. The studies which came up
with a definite link actually involved other chewing products, which are
popular in India,'' Gelkner said.

This concern, however, was the main reason that the EU decided to ban the
product in 1992.

But for many, a small risk of mouth cancer is seen as preferable to a more
likely risk of lung cancer.

  ($1-8.65 Swedish Crowns)