| "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The use of Swedish oral tobacco, known commonly as "snus," appears to be safer than smoking tobacco, but it is associated with an elevated risk of pancreatic cancer, according to the results of two studies published online by The Lancet." "In a study of the potential health effects of snus use in an Australian population, Dr. Wayne D. Hall, from the University of Queensland, and colleagues used life tables to estimate the life expectancies associated with the various types of tobacco use." "The researchers found that switching from smoking tobacco to snus provided significant improvements in health. Smokers who switched to snus also experienced comparable improvements in life expectancy as those who stopped using tobacco all together." "In the other study, which involved 125,576 Swedish construction workers who had never smoked, snus use doubled the risk of pancreatic cancer. By contrast, snus use did not seem to raise the risk of oral or lung cancer, senior author Dr. Olof Nyren, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues report." ""In Sweden, primary use of snus is associated with reduced risk of cigarette smoking in adulthood," Dr. Jonathan Foulds, from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in New Brunswick, and Dr. Lynn Kozlowski, from
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