Photo: pellesten 60 Minutes recently ran a story about snus, smokeless tobacco that is not messy and that may be a substitute for cigarettes. An anti-tobacco activist talked at length about how it might worsen tobacco’s hazards by addicting more people to nicotine, leading to more smoking.
This is a standard problem whenever the damage from undertaking a risky activity is reduced: Offer a life raft and more people will jump off a sinking ship. Many will be saved, but some will drown off the life raft. Mandatory seat belts do this-lives are saved, but people also drive faster and more accidents occur. Sex education does this-there are fewer pregnancies per sexual encounter, but more sexual encounters are undertaken. Unemployment insurance does this-it is a life raft for the working, but it attracts people into the workforce who are more likely than others to be unemployed. I’ll bet that snus, like the other examples, will reduce the total damages of the risky behavior, but more people will engage in the behavior because they expect its costs to be lower.
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“Sex education does this-there are fewer pregnancies per sexual encounter, but more sexual encounters are undertaken.” Do you mean sex-ed taught in schools? Or do you mean knowledge of and access to effective contraception?
I read somewhere that since the invention of parachutes, far more people have tried jumping out of airplanes!
Having just quit smokeless tobacco in Feb of this year I can say that for myself smokeless tobacco was just as, if not more addictive than smoking.
Anyone thinking about giving up smoking and taking up snus has it /half/ right.
The big difference between smokeless tobacco and smoking is you aren’t simultaneously giving cancer to the person sitting next to you.
I quit smoking 2 years ago, but had Snus come out when I was smoking, I would never have tried it (and still won’t). My husband uses smokeless tobacco (chew) and tried Snus, but didn’t like it.
I don’t think we have to worry about many people switching to it. For one, I think most people realize that it has the same stuff in it that is in cigarettes and chew. It also doesn’t have the same “cool” factor, it’s private and no one knows you’re doing it.
Is this Camel stuff anywhere close to the taste of Swedish snus? Swedish snus has a salty taste.
“There are fewer pregnancies per sexual encounter, but more sexual encounters are undertaken”.
This is a pair of empirical claims. Is there any evidence for them (particularly the second one)?
Hammermesh, you’ve never been poor or working-class, have you? Unemployment insurance “attracts people into the workforce who are more likely than others to be unemployed.”? Really? Are you suggesting that people who don’t have to work decide to because they’re HOPING to get laid off and collect unemployment? I think what attracts most people to the workplace (often against their better wishes) is the need for income.