CEI Defends Chewing Tobacco’s Honor

The Competitive Enterprise Institute – the same group that is trashing Al Gore’s global warming movie with deceptive advertisements – has risen to the defense of chewing tobacco.

A recent blog post on CEI’s website titled “Smokeless Tobacco: It’s Not Just for Rednecks and Ball Players Anymore” warns those arguing chewing tobacco is not safe “might be costing people their lives.” The post links to two websites, For Smokers Only and TobaccoHarmReduction.org that promote chewing tobacco as a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes.

Both sites receive funding by the United States Smokeless Tobacco Company which produces Copenhagen, Skoal, Rooster and other popular brands of chewing tobacco.

Here’s what the World Health Organization has to say about chewing tobacco:

Oral tobacco has been recognized since at least the 1980s to cause addiction, several forms of cancer and various dental diseases. The adverse health effects of oral tobacco mixtures have been extensively reviewed. All concur that smokeless tobacco products contain addictive levels of nicotine, many carcinogens, heavy metals, and other toxins, though recognizing that the levels of nicotine and toxins vary widely across products.

In general, oral tobacco products are highly addictive, and typically contain several carcinogens that cause head, neck and throat cancers with high rates of premature mortality.

Dipping: they say it causes cancer, we call it life.