Sep 14, 2010 14:47 GMT  ·  By

Smokeless tobacco products are not a safe nor an efficient option for people who want to stop smoking, an American Heart Association policy statement says.

The AHA warns that this type of products should not be used as a replacement for cigarettes or in order to stop smoking because they have a risk of addiction and returning to smoking.

“No tobacco product is safe to consume,” said Mariann Piano, PhD, a professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lead writer of the statement.

Smokeless tobacco products like chewing tobacco or dry or moist snuff, can increase the risk of fatal heart attack, fatal strokes or certain cancers, warns the American Heart Association, in its statement published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The article also attacks the preconceived idea that smokeless tobacco is safer than smoking, which comes partly from a Swedish experience where there was a serious decrease in smoking among Swedish men between 1976 and 2002, corresponding to an increase in the use of smokeless tobacco.

A recent study in the United States found no reduction in smoking rates among people that were using smokeless tobacco products.

"Smokeless tobacco products are harmful and addictive – that does not translate to a better alternative," Piano said.

In the US, smoke-free air laws become ubiquitous nowadays so the smokeless tobacco products have been benefiting from a marketing strategy that presents them as a situational substitute for cigarette smoking when smoking is forbidden.

These products are also being used by teenage boys, according to the AHA statement, so the Food and Drug Administration issued a final regulation related to the Tobacco Control Act which became effective June 22 that forbids the sale of tobacco products to people under 18.

For those trying to quit, the AHA recommends nicotine replacement therapy, whether it is gum or patches, because it is considered safer compared to smokeless tobacco products.

“Scientists and policy makers need to assess the effect of "reduced risk" messages related to smokeless tobacco use on public perception, especially among smokers who might be trying to quit,” Piano said.

Clinical studies have found no heart problems related to either type of nicotine replacement therapy.