Smokeless tobacco test on the way

With the smoking ban now passed, cigarette firms plough cash into alternative nicotine hit

The tobacco industry has seen the future and it's smokeless. As countries including England outlaw lighting up in enclosed public places, big cigarette firms are pouring millions of pounds and research hours into developing and promoting a product that delivers the addictive hit of nicotine, without the harm to health caused by cigarette smoke.

'They know the days of the cigarette are numbered. It's a long way off but as circumstances change, cigarette firms believe people will still want nicotine and they see smokeless alternatives as the way forward,' said Amanda Sandford, research manager at the anti-smoking charity Ash.

British American Tobacco, the UK's biggest tobacco company, confirmed to The Observer that it wants to sell snus - smokeless tobacco - across the European Union where, except for Sweden, it is currently banned.

Snus (pronounced 'snuz') is a sweet-sized pouch like a teabag that a user places under the lip. It delivers the nicotine hit in roughly a minute - around nine times slower than a cigarette, but much faster than nicotine patches used in giving up smoking.

In Sweden, snus outsells cigarettes and is credited with helping reduce lung cancer to the lowest rate in the world. Around 16 per cent of men use snus, compared with 14 per cent who smoke.

BAT is trialling snus in South Africa under the Lucky Strike brand, while rival Gallaher has an interest in a Scandinavian company that produces a similar product.

A history of snus

· In 1822 Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf began manufacturing snus in Sweden.

· One in 10 Swedes takes it in loose form by placing the leaves under the lip, or in a small pouch like a teabag placed in the mouth. The average Swedish user takes 800g a year.

· 11 per cent of Swedish men die from smoking-related disease compared with 25 per cent across the EU.

· Snus flavours include lemon, liquorice and mint.

Last year BAT unsuccessfully sought meetings with the Department for Trade and Industry and the Department of Health to discuss lifting the ban.

'We would welcome any opportunity to talk to the regulators about marketing smokeless tobacco in Europe,' a BAT spokeswoman said. But it could be a long time before snus is approved, if at all. Health watchdogs recall the Eighties, when US tobacco companies brought Skoal Bandits to the UK. The carcinogenic tobacco pouches were banned amid public protest.

Significantly, though, health groups are ambiguous about snus. A BAT briefing document quotes Ash as saying it is illogical to keep cigarettes legal 'while snus, which is over 100 times less harmful, is barred'. 'We wouldn't want to see it promoted as a completely safe alternative,' said Sandford, stressing such products had been linked to pancreatic and mouth cancers. 'But there is evidence snus gets people off smoking tobacco. We wouldn't want young people to start using it, but in Sweden a lot of middle-aged men have given up smoking because of switching to snus and then have given up snus.'

Unlike Skoal Bandits, snus tobacco is pasteurised, which manufacturers claim removes many carcinogens. The Royal College of Physicians declares that the product is up to 1,000 times less hazardous than smoking.

An EU health committee last week called for a review of scientific evidence on snus, particularly whether it could be a 'cessation aid'.

However Dr Yussuf Saloojee, director of South Africa's National Council Against Smoking, expressed concern that BAT had introduced the product too quickly.