If everyone knows your product kills, what do you do? Make it safer? Stop selling it?

Or repackage it in a way that sounds safer?

That’s what is being done.  And it’s not even being denied—David P. Howard, the Director of Communications for RJ Reynolds, the tobacco company behind many of the new products, said, “We are not making any health claims with these products. The most important thing to remember is these are tobacco products, and every tobacco product carries risk.”

It is easy to see how the flavoring, packaging, and marketing of these new products would appeal more to youth, especially those who have never consumed tobacco before.

The new tobacco products include snus, a spit-free, tea bag-like pouch of tobacco stuck between the gum while the nicotine melts into the bloodstream. snus was recently made widely available, while other smoke-free and spit-free products are being aggressively test-marketed in select cities.  Other new products include strips that are similar to breath strips, small, mint-like pellets, and toothpick-like sticks—all of which melt in your mouth. And all the new products contain harmful chemicals, including nicotine.

Because the new products are discreet and smokeless, they can be used anywhere, including restaurants, airplanes, and schools. In fact, an earlier version of Camel Snus packaging was circular, like chew tobacco. The packaging was changed to be more discreet and rectangular, like mint tins, so that the imprint would be more discreet when put in pants’ back pockets. But if tobacco is made to look more like mint and gum packaging, who will it appeal most to: adults or youth?

The new products are flavored, making them more appealing to people not used to the flavor of tobacco, like youth. For example, Camel Snus comes in Mellow and Frost, while Marlboro Snus comes in Mint, Rich, Mild and Spice.  All of them are flavors that sweeten the taste of tobacco, so they taste more like candy and less like tobacco.  

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Need more info?  Check out See the Evidence to get a look at how