What is snus? What is better or less harmful? Snus or cigarettes?

Snus is a smokeless, moist tobacco powder pouch from Sweden that is placed under the upper lip. It is not burned, and you don’t have to spit when using it.

"Compared to cigarette smoking, using snus is probably less harmful," says Michael Steinberg, MD, MPH, director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at Rutgers University. "But there is a big difference between 'less harmful' and safe."

"I would prefer that a person do nothing, but among tobacco products, it is at the lower end of the harm scale," says Eric Garrison, deputy director of health promotion at the College of William & Mary.

What is different about snus compared to cigarettes?

Snus originated in Sweden as a way to preserve tobacco. In that country, it is seen as something that has helped reduce smoking rates. More than half of Swedish snus users are former smokers.

"They have reduced their cancer risk," says Garrison. "They are not risk-free, but they have drastically lowered their risk by switching to snus." Without snus, the argument goes, these people might still be smoking.

In Norway, snus has also helped reduce smoking. People there have used it either as a smoking cessation aid or as an alternative to cigarettes when they have not successfully quit. And some Norwegian youth have taken up snus instead of cigarettes.

But that has not been the case in the U.S.

Snus is made differently in the U.S. While the Swedes have limited the number of chemicals allowed in their snus products, such as tobacco-specific nitrosamines, there are no such rules in the U.S. "What we have seen is that some tobacco companies call their products snus, but it’s not quite the same as Swedish snus," says Sward. "And these nitrosamines are carcinogenic." In other words, they can cause cancer.

Also, snus has not replaced cigarettes in the U.S. The number of people using smokeless tobacco has remained roughly the same over recent decades. Snus has not changed that.

What are the risks?

Snus contains nicotine, so it is addictive—you can become dependent on it. Quitting this habit has the same unpleasant side effects as quitting smoking, including headaches and nausea.

Smokeless tobacco products also deliver more nicotine and nitrosamines than cigarettes, although snus generally contains lower amounts of nitrosamines than other smokeless products.

Does it help to quit smoking?

This question is hard to answer definitively because it varies case by case. Once a person uses snus instead of cigarettes, it is basically less harmful. One big problem with snus is that it stops people from smoking but not from using nicotine. These people might have quit nicotine altogether. Instead of quitting, these smokers use snus as a substitute product. So it can help quit smoking, but not nicotine. Popular snus products that help people stay away from cigarettes can be found here.

The most harmful tobacco products are those you burn. The least harmful are medical nicotine products like patches and gum. Snus falls in the middle: safer than cigarettes but not as safe as nicotine gum. Rule of thumb: One portion of snus corresponds to about the nicotine concentration of roughly three cigarettes