Other tobacco products
Cigarettes are not the only tobacco product, there are alternatives, including both smokeless tobacco and other smoking tobacco products. But it’s important to know that they are just as addictive and sometimes even more harmful than cigarettes.
Different types of tobacco products.
- Chewing tobacco
- Snuff or snus
- Shisha or Hookah’s
- Bidi and clove cigarettes
Smokeless Tobacco
There are many types of smokeless tobacco products. They include chewing tobacco, snuff, snus, and dissolvable tobacco.
Smokeless tobacco products include tobacco that’s chewed, sucked, or sniffed, rather than smoked. The chemical that makes tobacco addictive, called nicotine, is absorbed through the tissues of the mouth or nose. Sometimes nicotine is swallowed.
- All forms of tobacco are harmful and betel itself can raise the risk of cancer so chewing betel quid without tobacco is still harmful
- More nicotine is absorbed by chewing tobacco than smoking a cigarette!
- Chewing tobacco raises the risk of mouth cancer and oesophageal cancer (cancer of the food pipe).
Chewing tobacco is sold as
- Loose leaves
- Braided leaves, also called a twist
- Compressed leaves, also called a plug
- Chewing tobacco may be flavoured. It’s placed between the cheek and gum. The saliva that builds up in the mouth is either spit out or swallowed. Chewing tobacco is also called chew, spitting tobacco or spit.
Betel quid, paan or gutkha
A mixture of ingredients including herbs, spices and often tobacco wrapped in a betel leaf. It is popular with many people from south Asian Communities.
Snuff
Finely ground tobacco that often has flavourings added to it. Moist snuff can go in the mouth between the cheek and gums, or behind the upper lip. Dry snuff is usually breathed in. There is growing evidence that snuff is linked to increased cancer risk.
Snus
Health risks of smokeless tobacco
Smokeless tobacco products might expose people to lower levels of harmful chemicals than tobacco smoke. But that doesn’t mean these products are a safe substitute for smoking.
Smokeless tobacco has nicotine, which can lead to addiction. It also contains dozens of chemicals that can cause cancer.
Health problems related to smokeless tobacco include the following:
Addiction
People who use smokeless tobacco may get as much or more nicotine into their bodies as do people who smoke cigarettes. As with smoking, withdrawal from smokeless tobacco can cause intense cravings, anger, and a depressed mood.
Cancer
The use of chewing tobacco and other smokeless tobacco products raises the risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, and pancreas. Smokeless tobacco also raises the risk of getting small white patches in the mouth called leucoplakia (loo-koh-PLAY-key-uh). These patches could turn into cancer. That’s why you might hear them called precancerous.
Heart disease
Dental disease
The sugar and irritants in smokeless tobacco products can cause cavities, worn-down teeth surfaces, teeth staining, bad breath, gum disease, receding gums, bone loss around roots and tooth loss.
Pregnancy risk
Using smokeless tobacco during pregnancy raises the risk of stillbirth, low birth weight and a heart rate issue in infants.
Poisoning risk
The candy-like appearance and flavours of some smokeless tobacco products make them attractive to children. Eating these products can cause nicotine poisoning. Nicotine poisoning in children can cause nausea, vomiting, weakness, shaking, coma, trouble breathing and even death.
Other smoking tobacco products
Bidi and clove cigarettes
Most common in South Asian, Middle Eastern and North African communities. It is becoming more popular in the UK, especially in young people.
Clove cigarettes also known as Kreteks are from Indonesia. They usually contain 60% tobacco and 40% cloves.
All smoking tobacco products bring with them health risks, and none is ‘safer’ than the other. All contain harmful substances that create toxic chemicals when they burn and most also contain nicotine.
Shisha pipes or Hookah
Shisha pipes, sometimes called Hookah, often mix fruit or sugar with tobacco, so some people do not realise that tobacco is used and do not see the risks involved in using pipes for social use.
But when you smoke shisha you and anyone sitting nearby are breathing in smoke the same way as a cigarette smoker. Air pollution in some shisha cafés and restaurants can go far above recommended safety limits.
Importantly people smoking shisha will often smoke for longer periods of time, and in one puff of shisha you inhale the same amount of smoke as you get from smoking a whole cigarette.
There are studies that show that smoking shisha exposes you to even higher levels of carbon monoxide than regular cigarettes because it is burnt using charcoal.
Any smoking raises your risk of cancer, heart disease and respiratory problems and both bidi and waterpipe smoke contain significant levels of cancer-causing chemicals and toxic gasses such as carbon monoxide.
Did you know?
In an average Hookah session of 1 hour a smoker inhales 90,000 ml of smoke as opposed to 500-600 ml a smoker smoking a cigarette inhales.
Need help to stop smoking? Find support local to you
Feel Good Suffolk Advisors are there to offer support and advice on stopping smoking, healthy weight and being more active. They will tell you about the services available, tell you about what other options there are in your local area and community and guide you through on-line self-help.
They can also advise you on the eligibility criteria for more intensive levels of support around managing a healthy weight, stopping smoking and being more active.
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