A proposal to increase the state tax on some forms of smokeless tobacco – moist snuff – to fund programs to recruit doctors to rural and underserved parts of the state is working its way through the Legislature. Senate Bill 233 is expected to raise $8 million to $9 million a year for recruitment programs of the Physician Manpower Training Commission. It would eliminate the current 20 percent tax on moist snuff and replace it with a $1.20 per ounce tax. A typical can of moist snuff contains a little more than one ounce. The tax hike would not apply to dry snuff, chewing tobacco, sm ... Jump to full article >>

Dip, rub, moist snuff, spit tobacco, chawburger — dipping tobacco has many names, but it’s always in demand. Second only to cigarettes in tobacco sales, $4.5 billion worth of moist smokeless tobacco was sold in the U.S. in 2009, according to information from the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. The company is the world’s leading producer of smokeless tobacco, making up 55 percent of the market. Its Copenhagen brand is the country’s most popular, accounting for nearly 25 percent of the market. Skoal is a close second, at about 23 percent. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. estimates 2009 ... Jump to full article >>

A two-day national consultation will be held here April 4-5 by the ministry of health and family welfare in association with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) to highlight the growing use of tobacco products other than cigarettes. A statement released Tuesday said that as per the recent Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) India Report, the current use of smokeless tobacco among adult males in India is as high as 32.9 percent and for females it is 18.4 percent. Overall, 26 percent of the adult population consumes smokeless type of tobacco. Smokeles ... Jump to full article >>

NEW DELHI: Can smokeless and chewing tobacco, India’s major public health problem, be called food items and then be tested and asked to reveal contents? That’s what the Union health ministry now wants to find out. The ministry has called a crucial consultation with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) — the nodal body to implement the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 — on April 4 and 5. The Act replaced the earlier Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954 in which smokeless tobacco was not considered a food item. The ministry now wants to see that if ... Jump to full article >>

From 1 March 2011, the industry has to adopt non-plastic packaging for products such as gutka and pan masala. According to Rajesh Malpani, secretary general of the Smokeless Tobacco Federation (India), 1 March is too tight a deadline to consider the cost effectiveness of any substitute and develop new packaging manufacturing systems to replace the banned plastic pouches for chewing tobacco which were banned due to complaints about their lack of biodegradability and recyclability. “I am not sure that any feasible option will come even in next six months,” he tells TJI. The most popular chew ... Jump to full article >>

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is targeting people who resolve to quit smoking in the new year with advertisements suggesting they switch to its smokeless tobacco pouches, a move critics say is an attempt to keep people from quitting nicotine. The ads mark the company’s first campaign aimed at getting smokers to switch to the pouches known as snus, which Reynolds introduced in early 2009, spokesman David Howard said Wednesday. The carefully worded ads suggest, but don’t say directly, that the pouches are a way to help kick the smoking habit. Under federal law, com ... Jump to full article >>

Longtime readers are well aware of my steadfast rule: lips that touch chewing tobacco shall never touch mine. But Major League Baseball has no such code, and two Democratic senators — urged on by none other than Stephen Strasburg — are pushing to change the smokeless tobacco culture in MLB. Sens. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Dick Durbin of Illinois have sent a letter to commissioner Bud Selig urging him to ban smokeless tobacco at all Major League venues, claiming that dip and chew endanger players’ health and send “a dangerous message” to young fans. And Strasburg, who in add ... Jump to full article >>

A monk’s apparent inability to withstand a cursed Indian temptation has posed the first test for Bhutan after it renewed a 300-year-old drive to combat tobacco. A little over a month after a stringent anti-tobacco law kicked in this New Year’s Day, a 24-year-old Buddhist monk was arrested for smuggling in 72 packets of chewing tobacco (gutkha) from India. The new law has also banned the sale of tobacco products in Bhutan. Tobacco products can be brought into the country but only after paying a 200 per cent tax. The monk’s identity cannot be disclosed since he is still under trial but he ... Jump to full article >>

A small tobacco manufacturer in Richmond, Va., said Tuesday that it has developed a moist-snuff product that has the lowest levels of carcinogens — in this case nitrosamines — in the marketplace. That includes “99 percent lower than the levels found in conventional American moist snuffs, such as Copenhagen or Skoal, and 90 percent less than the level found in current snus products,” the company said. Star Scientific Inc. plans to apply soon to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to market the product, part of its Stonewall brand, as “modified risk” unde ... Jump to full article >>

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has launched a national campaign marketing Camel as a potential New Year’s resolution solution for smokers. The campaign is the company’s first aimed specifically at encouraging smokers to switch to Camel Snus, Reynolds spokesman David Howard said. Snus comes in a small pouch that is placed between the lip and gum. The tobacco is pasteurized, not fermented, and it contains less moisture and salt than moist snuff. It also does not require the consumer to spit. “A lot of adults make a decision to quit smoking this time of the year,” Howard said. ... Jump to full article >>

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. confirmed for CSP Daily News reports of the tobacco company’s intent to pull the Camel Dissolvables line of smokeless tobacco products–Camel Sticks, Strips and Orbs–from current lead tests markets of Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and Portland, Ore. Customers had received word about the product removal through a letter sent from R.J. Reynolds, said The Indianapolis Star. David Howard, spokesperson for Reynolds American Inc., Winston-Salem, N.C., told CSP Daily News, “We have made the business decision that we are going to be going to new lead ma ... Jump to full article >>