Unfortunately, not all the news is good news: A recently proposed measure in the Russian Federation, much to our (and all others devoted to reducing the toll of smoking) chagrin, aims to ban the manufacture, sale, and importation of smokeless tobacco products.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross is urging the Russian government, in website comments and letters to several ministers, to reconsider enacting such a ban. The Russian health authorities are probably not well-versed in the data on harm reduction, and don't know that these products could help the over 40 million Russian smokers quit and reduce their health risk by over 90 percent.
Added ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom, Since smokeless tobacco itself has almost no health risk, banning it would not only be of no benefit to the health of the Russian people, it would almost certainly be harmful.
