The Use of Snus

In the current European Journal of Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers Brad Rodu and Philip Cole estimate that 200,000 smoking-related deaths a year could be eliminated if all E.U. countries had the same smoking rate as Sweden, where men often use snus (smokeless tobacco) instead of cigarettes. "Overall tobacco use among Swedish men is the same as for men in all EU countries--40 percent," Rodu notes in a press release. "However, Swedish men smoke at less than half the rate of their EU counterparts, resulting in dramatically lower rates of fatal disease." The difference is due to the Swedish use of snus, which is banned in the rest of the E.U.