New Threat from Smokeless Tobacco? Just Swallow

If you chew tobacco, I can understand why you might become ill. Nevertheless, in 1918 a gentleman in Mississippi was so upset that he sued the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company after he became ill and foamed at the mouth when he chewed a plug of Brown Mule chewing tobacco. Upon closer inspection of his chew, he discovered a decomposed human toe in it, as if the tobacco alone would not have been bad enough.

Pillars v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (78 So. 365, 366 (Miss. 1918)) is remembered chiefly as a products liability case in which the Mississippi Supreme Court famously observed: "We can imagine no reason why, with ordinary care, human toes could not be left out of chewing tobacco, and if toes are found in chewing tobacco, it seems to us that somebody has been very careless."

There is no indication in the court's opinion that the tobacco company ever discovered whose toe was in the to(e)bacco or how it got there. My personal theory is that when a worker in the tobacco field or processing plant severed his toe, he didn't report it to his employer because a number of states at that time, including Mississippi, didn't have a workers' compensation law in place. Even today, some states don't require an employer to provide comp coverage for agricultural workers. Reporting the injury in 1918 probably wouldn't have qualified the worker for paid medical care. Quite possibly, reporting the loss of a toe somewhere in a large quantity of tobacco would have simply cost the worker his (or her) job.

Living as I do in the heart of what is still known as "tobacco country," I follow tobacco news closely although I do not smoke, snort, huff or chew tobacco. I was both pleased and proud when Kentucky banned smoking in its state government buildings. And my civic pride was as expansive as a cloud of floating cigar smoke when the local government decided to ban smoking in Lexington bars and restaurants.

If you read a tobacco history or two, however, you may notice that when a government bans smoking in public places, the use of "smokeless" tobacco--- including the kind you chew--- tends to increase.¹ This isn't a positive social development, especially if it should lead to the resurgent popularity of certain chewing accouterments such as, say, spittoons.

But maybe the tobacco industry has come up with a way to solve the untidy problem of spittoon use and the unwanted presence of toes in smokeless tobacco, a way that does not involve the enhancement of workers' compensation laws although it may still alarm and disgust members of the dental profession. U.S. tobacco companies are now promoting a product called "snus."² Snus ---the Swedish word for tobacco which rhymes pleasantly with "Dr. Seuss"---is a tiny, tea-bag-like pouch of smokeless tobacco that the user tucks between cheek and gum. No messy spitting is involved; you just swallow the juice ---if you can stand to --- for a quick nicotine hit.

I'm skeptical of the claim that the use of snus (whether use by you, or Dr. Seuss) is "undetectable" to anyone else. But it does appear that it'll be easier to sort out any toes or other non-tobacco debris if the product must first be stuffed into a tiny little pouch before it's put up for sale. It's probably all done by machine, but I can imagine the tobacco workers of a bygone era going about pouch-stuffing work with a sing-song, "This little piggy went to market... uh oh..."

Snus is said to be steam pasteurized, which makes it sound really clean and even wholesome. If only they can make snus that is also colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-carcinogenic --- maybe then I'll try it.

Sources:

1 Jorn Madslein, Snuff Firms Sniff a Profit in Smoking Bans, 9/6/04, BBC News Online, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3758939.stm

1 Ivar Ekman, Sated with Snuff, Swedes Take Smoking Ban in Stride, 5/29/05, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/international/europe/29sweden.html

2 Vicki Smith, New Smokeless Tobacco Camel Snus to Make National Debut, 11/23/08, Associated Press, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/11/23/new-tobacco-product-alarms-some-health-officials/