Why do some people feel the need to blurt out that tobacco is harmful as soon as it’s mentioned. I am well aware of the research that has been done as it directly affects my own life, yet others make the
rapid assumption that all tobacco users must be ignorant. I would hazard a guess that we in fact tend to know more about it then non users. I am so tired of having health issues thrown in my face even before
the non user has had a chance to listen to what you have learned. I was sharing with a co-worker that I use snuff and the first thing I hear is how it causes cancer…all tobacco is lumped in with lung cancer. In the
eyes of most people tobacco in ANY form at any time is the fastest road to ill health. If you look at the plant too long, eye cancer! If you touch it, finger cancer, if you say the word tobacco, word cancer!!
They are so close minded and literally terrified of it. I am not ignorant of the health affects but this type of reaction seem over the top to me.
It’s an interesting question. Obviously, the public health campaign that has been waged against tobacco over the past four or five decades has been quite successful. It hasn’t helped that this campaign has coincided with a broader cultural obsession with fitness and health. The irony, of course, is that many of those who are quite quick to point out the detrimental effects of tobacco are oblivious to their own bad habits. Tobacco certainly isn’t good for you, but neither are red meat, mercury contaminated swordfish, foods with transfats, sugary drinks/foods, or the modern sedentary lifestyle. Their position also assumes that it is never rational to accept some negative health impacts in exchange for the pleasure that one can obtain from indulging. This is odd, since most would probably assent to the idea that it is acceptable to occasionally have a piece of cake, even though it is “bad” for you.
As has been pointed out here many times (and, indeed, as you note in your post) part of this comes from the fact that all tobacco is lumped together in the popular imagination. Clearly, some forms of tobacco are less harmful than others, but many people instinctively associate tobacco with cigarettes, and never seem to remember that there are other ways to consume our favorite vegetable. This is particularly problematic when, out of ignorance, non-cigarette forms of tobacco are legislatively treated the same as cigarettes (see for example the PACT Act). The obvious way to remedy this situation (advertising, public awareness campaigns) is not readily to us, due to bans on advertising tobacco products. Ultimately, we are all suffering from the overreach that the major cigarette companies engaged in for so long. It’s unfortunate, but I don’t really see any way to fix it.
But it was on television, tobacco is bad unkay, if it was on TV it must be true.
When I happen to overhear the anti-tobacco zealots squawking about all the harmful effects of our favorite vegetable, I chuckle quietly to myself, pull out my silver snuff box and take a nice large pinch. How little they know.
Boys let me tell you so,etching about tobacco. Tobacco’s bad, mmkay? Tobacco causes cancer. Let me tell you something about cancer. Cancer’s bad mmkay? 
The way I see it even if it shortens your lifespan why would you want to live to be one hundred if you never get to enjoy some things that aren’t healthy? You know when those people point the finger at tobacco users they have three fingers pointing back at them.
@TomStrasbourg Actually the other 3 fingers are usually wrapped around something greasy and deep fried…
All excellent points and comments here.What I don’t understand are some people’s motivation to make sure we are constantly alarmed about something we freely choose to do.Why must we be in constant anxiety about it? What allows them the assumption that we, tobacco users, are ill informed about tobacco? I’ll remind myself of this next time as I take a pinch of Irish High Toast N0.22 - Yes I use tobacco. Tell me what are some things you do that are maybe not the best for your mind, body and spirit?
It is all a scam for insurance company can reap profits; if you use tobacco in any form your in this higher tier risk group I just don’t understand everyone dies why do I have to pay more? Snuff is a vegetable and there for is at the top of my food pyramid .
Nutrition for the soul…
I agree with all the doomsayers, lets ban tobacco and while we are at it , cars , guns, tiled floors, sharp implements, diseases, sunshine, poverty, economical fragility, wild animals, air travel, water, sugar, fats, mobile phones, electricity. I propose we live in caves and eat gravel, wear grass ( if you don’t suffer with Hayfever) then we will all be safe from the dangers around us.Yea Gods wont these people leave us alone!..my rant over.I need a worry free Snuff fix now!
i think we ask the FDA and any health agency to find us proof that snuff taking is bad for us … tobacco, i.e. cigarettes, are bad mmmkay … but lumping it all in to one big cancer pot is F-ing ridiculous! Show us the proof! Scientific evidence.
I see the same dudes at the gym everyday … as I walk in with a snus in the upper lip(spit out right before i begin my workouts) … they are fat asses, and i run circles around them … yeah … tobacco rocks! :D
Diet Coke, wheat, refined sugar, sugar substitutes, etc. far worse for you than toe-bakky.
seriously when people blurt out that bullshit. I always blurt out something like did you know it’s rude to get up in other peoples business and try to tell them how to live their lives.
Usaly turns they’re face red and they almost always have the balls to say they’re just trying to help or protect you. So then I point out that I’am doing the same thing because someone will eventualy kick their ass if they keep up that bull shit.
@basement_shaman Every time I read your posts I hear it in my head like that dude in your picture from metalocalypse is saying it lol
ALL LOW.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that reads Basement Shamans posts as Nathan. Lol
@Harlequin LOL! Nathan!
THAT’S his name 
I have a really hard time with my mother, because her dad died when she was 19 from lung cancer. He was a two-pack a day kind of smoker. She knows of my rare cigar smoking, but despises it. Has no idea I ‘snort my tobacco’. She’d scream nose cancer.
At least she’s happy I quit smoking cigarettes.
The girlfriend doesn’t mind the snuff, and will occasionally take a pinch. She smokes cigarettes, and wants to quit.
ALL my fiance and I do now is snuff and sometimes use e-cigarettes. I love them both and my life is MUCH more healthy thanks to them. No shame in my game.
a generous thanks to all for your comments and discussion.
@Wingcamnut “I propose we live in caves and eat gravel”, I nearly shot coffee out of my mouth, your avatar makes me laugh too!
When I’m using snuff or snus and someone blurts some sort of “tobacco is bad for your health” bs, I usually tell them to do a little research before they spew that crap at me.
If I don’t know someone and they fire the old “tobacco/smoking is bad for you” line, I usually respond with “so is opening your mouth to a guy my size.” (I am 6’7", and not a friendly looking fellow when I’m not dressed for work)
I usually just get the “is that coke you just took” comment when I am snuffing about town here in Dallas TX. Then I have say “yes I am the only man who knows where to get dark brown Coke.” I have yet to get the comment about health risks of tobacco at that point because I apparently might be a well dressed crack head.