Do Health Authorities in this Country

Give a rat's ass about their credibility?

Some do and some don't apparently.

The Mayo Clinic Spreads Misinformation About Smokeless Tobacco

By John K. Carlisle

The Mayo Clinic is one of the most prestigious and affluent medical charitable organizations in the United States. Based in Rochester, Minnesota, its mission “is to provide the best care for every patient every day through integrated clinical practice, education and research.” But despite its many impressive medical achievements, the Mayo Clinic ignores scientific research showing the health benefits that result when smokers switch to smokeless tobacco. Nor does Mayo acknowledge important research conducted in Sweden and West Virginia that shows a correlation between high smokeless tobacco use and lower rates of tobacco-related cancer and diseases. The Mayo Clinic is world-famous because it has pioneered new ways of thinking about medicine and health. However, in its treatment of smoking prevention and cessation, its approach is disappointingly traditional.
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In fact, smokeless tobacco products are less harmful than cigarettes and other smoking products. A 2002 report issued by the British Royal College of Physicians states, “the consumption of non-combustible tobacco is of the order of 10-1,000 times less hazardous than smoking, depending on the product.” Dr. Brad Rodu and Dr. Philip Cole, scientists at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, have refuted Mayo claims by pointing out that smoke -- not addictive nicotine -- is responsible for most tobacco-related diseases. In 1995, they published a summary of the latest research findings in Priorities For Health, the health journal of the American Council on Science and Health. Rodu and Cole noted that smokeless tobacco does not cause lung cancer or emphysema and other lung diseases; it doesn’t pose excessive risk of heart attack; and obviously it produces no second-hand smoke, which the American Heart Association claims is responsible for 40,000 U.S. deaths each year.

Yet Mayo has tried to frighten the public by asserting that smokeless tobacco use leads to “an increased risk of oral cancer.” Its web site observes that oral cancer includes “cancers of the mouth, throat, cheek, gums, lips and tongue. Surgery to remove the cancer from any of these areas can leave the jaw, chin, neck or face disfigured.” However, smokeless tobacco advocates never have argued that smokeless products are harmless. They acknowledge the increased risk of oral cancer. But they say that for those who cannot stop using tobacco it is safer to use smokeless tobacco than to smoke.

Who acknowledges the increased risk of oral cancer?

West Virginia Study Refutes Mayo Claims

There is also evidence in the U.S. indicating that extensive smokeless tobacco use correlates with lower rates of tobacco-related disease. In 1998, the Maxillofacial Center for Diagnostics & Research in Morgantown, West Virginia published an article, “Oral Cancer in a Tobacco-Chewing Population -- No Apparent Increased Incidence or Mortality,” that examined West Virginia, the state with the highest per capita consumption of smokeless tobacco. The article was written by Drs. J.E. Bouquot, D.D.S., M.S.D. and R.L. Meckstroth, D.D.S. Dr. Bouquot is the Director of Research at the Maxillofacial Center for Diagnostics & Research. He is also the former Dental Director at the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health. Dr. Meckstroth is a Professor at the Department of Rural and Public Health Dentistry at the West Virginia University School of Dentistry. Bouquot and Meckstroth hypothesized that cancer rates for West Virginians should be significantly greater than the U.S. average given their heavy use of smokeless tobacco products. About 15.6 percent of adult men in West Virginia use smokeless tobacco, compared to the national average of four percent. Surprisingly, the researchers found that West Virginia’s oral cancer rate is below the U.S. average. The cancer rate for the state’s males and females was 13.4 per 100,000 and 5.1 per 100,000 respectively. The U.S. average is 15.4 for men and 5.7 for women.

Well, well...

I loved Skoal Wintergreen Longcut. I only gave it up because of the horror stories.

Time to take up the old spittoon again. Skoal, brother!