Friendly Survey. Is Snuff Harmless?

For me caffeine has more significant withdrawals than tobacco. Everyone is different, and anyone who considers the matter of addiction to be cut and dry or well understood is fooling themselves. Alcohol is an excellent parallel. It can be extremely addictive, and for many people it is. Others can pick it up and put it down. To speak as if one understands someone else’s contrary idiosyncratic experience with a substance rubs me the wrong way. My anxiety got worse over the winter so I stopped alcohol, caffeine and tobacco. I sleep in a room that houses 50 pounds of tobacco, 10 of snuff, and a few hundred stogies. I wish I felt better and could partake like I used to on occasion but it just doesn’t appeal to me. Stopping caffeine yielded a headache for three days. Nothing else really happened except less exacerbation of anxiety since I wasn’t chronically raising adrenaline and cortisol. We need to get real about how individual, circumstantial, epigenetic, and environmentally influenced a person’s relationship with substances can be, and not project our own experiences on others. I would never decree tobacco non addictive based solely on my experience. But it’s almost humorous to be oft labeled an addict in denial giving my experiences. And likewise, people around us consume addictive substances all the time with various outcomes. Like alcohol. It’s a wild world out there.

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I think, personally, that vaping is dangerous. Not inherently perhaps, but due to uncertainty. I get my snuff from McChrysyals, one of the original companies. If I put that in my nose, even if I have personal concerns that it may be unsafe because its tobacco, I understand that its at least a known and quality controlled formula. A formula the effects of which have been well documented. This is even the case for cigarettes. This is not the case for vaping. No one knows yet what is going to become problematic about vaping. Something has been a problem however. That much is clear

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because coffee is generally considered safe unless someone either over does it (which that the jury is still out on, basically lots of contradictory data that supports both sides) or is hypersensitive to some aspect of it. You know not a particularly serious concern after all is said and done.

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My thinking is that the human nose is pretty good at letting air in, but keeping (and getting) impurities out. That is one of its main functions. We all know that tobacco is not harmless (what is?!) But setting fire to it and inhaling it seems particularly risky. I gave up snuff for a couple of years recently, due to frustration over a completely blocked nose; I took up vaping as my source of nicotine. But then I started coughing every time I vaped, so recently returned to snuff. I now realise that to avoid a blocked nose, I need to stay WELL hydrated … giving my nose what it needs to function properly. So … happy days again!!!

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also found being more gentle and slow about nose blowing also helps.

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@bob Yes indeed.

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@volunge I’m curious to know more about the connection between nasal snuff and dental health. Can you say more?

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@thats_the_snuff, well, my point is simple - upper deck is relatively close to the sinuses. While the distance varies from person to person, some have a sinus floor very close to their tooth roots.

Please take my worries with a grain of salt, buddy. I’m having a number of issues with my teeth, which all started in my childhood/early teen years, well before I got into tobacco. A classic case of dental fear and anxiety here.

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When I enjoy quite a bit of snuff I can feel my heart beat in my front teeth, such as right now

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@volunge I feel you… That’s why I asked :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Have always found dental issues difficult to deal with, although recently after having found a great dentist, I’m comforted.

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Nothing is harmless. Something’s gotta kill you someday, and I honestly doubt that snuff will be what does me in. As far as tobacco goes, I believe snuff is less harmful than many other methods of consumption. In fact, I believe that non-combusted tobacco- smokeless- is much less dangerous than the public opinion seems to think. Is it harmless? No. It would be foolish to suggest otherwise. But it’s a hell of a lot less harmful than cigarettes.

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@thatotherguy thanks! Agreed.

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I think snuff is relatively safe not only in comparison to dip/smoke/vape but also in comparison to a bunch of other things we come in contact with everyday. 
 Having a unhealthy diet is more dangerous than having a snuff habit in my opinion. 

 Drinking alcohol or sitting around a campfire probably causes more harm than snuff. 

Im not really worried about either of those (except unhealthy diet) so im not really worried about snuff either.

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@mycelium thanks! All good points.

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I would not really say harmless… but there is much worse out there.

Honestly, I

@Humppa for some reason comments get deleted if you use certain characters on certain devices. Try to avoid apostrophes and other special characters when typing especially if your using ios.

@rostanf Thanks for the advice… but I use a simple Windows laptop… and did not use any apostrophes or something like that.

Like any habit that has some negative consequences users tend to rationalize them. While I think the studies on nasal snuff have been inconclusive due to the small percentage of actual users I would surmise that some exposure to cancer does exist but probably much smaller than other tobacco use. I can say personal that some snuffs have effected my sense of smell etc. in a slightly negative way but not enough to make me want to stop anytime soon. I think with anything a person can adjust their use in a way, for many substances, that lessens negative impact. I try not for example to have any tobacco residue in my nose when I sleep.

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@volunge Yeah I had a ‘cavity’ filled by a dentist because my nostril was inflamed and causing tooth pain there and I naively trusted the dentist.  3 years later same thing happened, same tooth, this time dentist claiming cavity on the other side.  I got suspicious, had the office email me the two xrays, saw no evidence of cavities.  Been more cautious with my nostrils and the tooth pain has 95% resolved itself.  Lesson learned, never blindly trust dentists.

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Not harmless, but far from the most hazardous thing I do. Exposure levels must be considered too. I consume far more sugar and fat than I do snuff for example. I dread to think how much traffic fumes I consume per month. I am also an occasional smoker, by which I mean less than 25g a month. My snuff use isn’t much higher than that, so whilst not completely harmless, in the grand scheme of things it is nothing for me to be concerned about.

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