Chemical analysis of snus products from the United States and northern Europe

This article presents a study on Snus product chemical characteristics from different manufacturers. Snus products are available as fine-cut loose tobacco or in pre-portioned pouches. Some snus products undergo tobacco pasteurization during manufacturing, to remove or reduce nitrite forming microbes. This results in less tobacco-specific nitrosamine content in the product. Thus, some tobacco companies and researchers have suggested that snus may be less harmful than traditional tobacco and therefore a potential smoking cessation aid or an alternative. However, they vary widely based on manufacturer and country. For this reason, researchers conducted a study in which Moisture, pH, nicotine, and tobacco-specific N’-nitrosamines (TSNAs) were quantified in 64 snus products made by 10 manufacturers in the United States and Northern Europe (NE). This study found that among all product types, moisture (27.4%–59.5%), pH (pH 5.87–9.10), total nicotine (6.81–_x000D_20.6 mg/g, wet), unprotonated nicotine (0.083–15.7 mg/g), and total TSNAs (390–4,910 ng/_x000D_g) varied widely and concluded therefore that because the characteristics' data varied so widely between US and NE products that they could not be considered "equivalent" and need future research to ascertain the impact of such variables as addictiveness found in_x000D_ reduced carcinogen exposure products and the relation of alkalinity to unprotonated nicotine.

Lawler, T. S., Stanfill, S. B., Tran, H. T., Lee, G. E., Chen, P. X., Kimbrell, J. B., Lisko, J. G., Fernandez, C., Caudill, S. P., deCastro, B. R., & Watson, C. H. (2020). Chemical analysis of snus products from the United States and northern Europe. PloS One, 15(1), e0227837. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227837