I’ve been reading a New Zealand website that promotes smokeless tobacco and an alternative to smoking. Yet read this bit where it talks a purity and African snuff: “Regulation of purity Nasal snuff in New Zealand is currently not subject to any regulation for purity. In Africa, snuff containing high levels of chromium (24 - 97 ppm) and other metals was suspected to be the cause of high rates of nasal cancer in African people in past years.” But then it talks about this: “Singleton Menthol (Swedish Match), as sold in cans of 6 g tobacco in South Africa, contained 1.8% of moisture, 0.6% nicotine by wet weight, 99% of which was in free base form, at a measured pH of 10.1.5 Nicotine delivery is likely to be very high, but plasma nicotine was not measured for this brand. One 6 g can lasts a regular South African user about 3 days.” Dose anyone have info on this? Sad for me as Red TAXI is my favourite snuff.
Without more specifications telling us EXACTLY what kind of snuff he is talking about, this is just a rag blowing in the wind. “The African people”… Is he talking about Algeres, Cairo, Nairobi, Cape Town or what? Africa is a big continent.
Is chromium something bad? It is available as otc health supplement here. The Only thing with african snuff is that tobacco in Zimbabwe and Zambia has recently been taken over from generation-long white farmers to black farmers who don’t have any experience at all.
Short answer, if it’s made by Swedish match, no.
@ausDave, how about a link to the website? Sounds potentially interesting, although I join the chorus in being a bit skeptical about the comments on African tobacco.
I would doubt so. There is one region that jaw cancer is common as well as snuff use. In that area the use of charred aloe in the snuff was the culprit. Latter the chromium occuring in the ground was switched to the culprit. I don’t think any commercial snuff is grown in that area also due to the nature of the tobacco industry where the crop could be from anywhere African or not for a commercial snuff is not a safety issue.
Charred aloe @bob? I hear that stuff is toxic just being ingested. Maybe its if its ingested by pets that I heard. Still don’t think charring aloe and, consuming it in any ways sounds good. Although 1 in 2 people I meet in my travels are shocked and, disgusted that I shove tobacco in my nose. Mostly baby boomers oddly enough.
Kopi Luwak snuff ? :))