I’ve come across some interesting facts while reading through notes on Prof Phillips Griffiths Snuffs and Snufftaking. This might shed some light on the different warnings on snuff containers. South African snuffs are contained in either tins or plastic boxes with the warning pressed into the metal/plastic. Way back, when the snuff companies were forced to display such a warning, the EEC Council Directive 92/41/EEC demanded the words Causes Cancer. Later on, after much more research, they realised that the statement wasn’t true and it was changed to This tobacco product can damage your health and is addictive. Now, my guess is that the cost involved to change the wording on the SA products were to high. The pressing machines would have to be altered, so the guys just never bothered to do it. And that’s why our snuffs are still poisonous!! Another possibility is that our government do not know about the change yet. The change was only made about 9 years ago, so they might still catch up.
South African snuff warnings still say ‘causes cancer’? Thats a pain… It must be harder to get people to switch from cigarettes to snuff as they’ll just think “They both cause cancer so I might as well stay on the cigs”
The warning on Taxi tins is just part of the sticker, could be easily changed. It’s almost humorous in the way it reads, like it’s a guarantee, it simply “causes cancer”, no doubt about it, plain and simple, it’s going to cause it.
Cancer isn’t so bad in the S.A. In fact the companies are spreading rumours that cancer is highly contagious. That way snuffing in public will lower car jacking percentages dramaticly. Don’t forget you heard it hear first.
LOL! NICE!
bob, you made my day!!! LOL
Now you know why you still have your car. Though maybe you could sell a home lypresy kit that makes you look contagious. Even could cover parts of the car interior with fake puss. Just a thought.
Fale puss, hhmmmmmmm.
bob, we have found a solution to avoid being hi jacked !! At every major road crossing in SA, you will find dozens of jobless guys waiting to be picked up for a days work. If one wants to move something heavy, for instance, you go to the nearest crossing and collect some “workers”. Almost all of these guys have the looks of the tipical hi jacker but they are to lazy or to scared to do that. So, what we do now, when ever we have to drive through a dangerous area, we pick up one of these guys to ride up front with us (works very well for the ladies especially). You “arm” him with a broomstick, looks like the barrel of a gun. Now, when you go past a real hi jacker, he will leave you alone because he reckons you’ve been hi jacked already!!! 'n Boer maak 'n plan. (A farmer makes a plan) Cheers
Sounds pretty tough. A collegue of mine was seconded to the SA police in the days of apartheid. They followed a black guy in a stolen car, well out of town, pulled him over, shot him dead, had the car recovered and that was the end of it. Makes East London seems very tame.
Yeah times seem very interesting in S.A. Right now. It’s got a lot of potential and a lot of growth happening. And a lot of it’s past to deal with. Its definatly the place where an investor with a lot of balls stands to either make a lot of growth or shot themselves in the foot. Pretty chaotic. Well that’s the state of the world constintly crazy. Lets all just hope we get to enjoy the craziness in our pockets of the world.
I went to the doctor the other day, turns out I had a lymph node infection. But he asked if I took tobacco and I told him I take nasal snuff quite regularly - we ended up having a long talk about it and he was quite insistent that nasal snuff can cause cancer, still. Do you guys know of any reported cases of cancer via nasal snuff? I’ve heard of none.
@saucy_jack: If there exists a documented case of nasal snuff causing cancer, no one has brought it to light. If your doctor is so insistent upon this “fact,” then demand that he back up his claims. Most doctors think TOBACCO = CANCER; NO DEBATE. It is like trying to reason with a fundamentalist Christian. However, I do go to a very reasonable dentist who is interested in actually learning the scientific truth. He recommends snus and nasal snuff to his patients who smoke and wish to quit. He even thanked me for clarifying the difference between Swedish snus and American “snus.” He now explains this difference to his patients and recommends Swedish snus. I also showed him the Toque website, and he said that he will refer people to that as a viable alternative to smoking.
Last time I went to a doctor his only issues with snus where that it’s addictive and that it would increase the chances of more minor diseases. He even said that american chew probably wouldn’t cause me any major problems.
I went to a Nose and Throat specialist last year to have a vein in my nose cauterized (a defect I was born with) and he didn’t say a thing about my snuff usage. My regular doctor is far more concerned with my weight and the maybe 3 or 4 cigarettes I smoke a month than my daily snuff usage. Glad to see that other doctors are “enlightened” too.
Oh wow! That’s rather shocking. One would think that something like would have been changed since it would seem members of the EU are forced to quickly change everything else to what it should be.
Were they inveterate snuffers?
:0 Only the homemade ones (not NTSU or Taxi)?
You must just keep in mind that the African natives are uneducated and wild. They do things you won’t believe. My grandma had a guy working for her. One of Granny’s chickens died of some unknown disease while this guy was away for a while. Grandma buried the dead chicken. When the old chap returned, he “enquired” about the missing chicken. When grandma told him it has died and was buried, he was grossly upset. He immediately retrieved the chicken from it’s burial place and set forth to make himself one delicious meal. That was after the chicken has been buried for 4 days. When a baby is born, the parents must kill a white goat to keep the evil spirits away from this child. They dig a hole in the ground, line it with goat skin and cut an artery in the goats neck while holding it down over the “pit”. They then share the blood with everyone present, drinking it out of goat’s horns. They then chop up the goat with axes and have a nice “barbeque”. This “party” starts as soon as the sun sets. All the meat must be finished before the sun rises again. We also found a petrol drum with some home made beer, hidden away in some bushes. We emptied the drum and found, on the bottom of this concoction, some torch batteries. They believe it makes the beer more potent. When an African native boy turns about 18, he must be circumcised by an elder to become a man. Every year a lot of them die because of being “operated” on by sangomas using filthy pangas. So, don’t worry about African made snuffs. It won’t give you cancer. It will kill you before you reach that stage.
Filek, in that report, weren’t there some issues with heavy metals in the soils? Or something in the snuff itself? I think some of this I read on that New Zealand snuff promotional site. In any case, they came to the conlcusion that the tobacco by itself could not by directly linked to the cancers, as there were other poisons involved. At least that’s what I remember. If you have the source, you can confirm.