The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75940   Message #1340775
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
27-Nov-04 - 06:30 PM
Thread Name: BS: Smoking ban in Ontario
Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban in Ontario
According to that site I linked to, snuff and snuff-taking is rather different in the USA:

Professor Brad Radu of the University of Alabama has told me that "there is a lot of confusion about the term snuff between the Americans and the British. In the U.S. snuff almost always refers to moist snuff, which is more coarsely ground, such that a pinch can be transferred from the container to the mouth, to be held between the cheek and gum. Snuff products are all alkaline in pH, which facilitates transfer of nicotine directly across the lining of the mouth. A minority of users prefer moist snuff pre-packaged in pre-portioned pouches, which are milder and negate the problem of loose tobacco floating throughout the mouth.   Dry or powdered snuff is available ... [but] inhalation is practically non-existent. Instead, the dry snuff is placed in the mouth with a moistened stick or finger.

I quite see Clinton's point, if that's really true. I remember a few years ago someone tried to introduce that type of mouth snuff in the UK, and there was quite a health fuss about it, and the idea got dropped.    Real snuff, on the other hand, is a lot less messy, and a more civilised affair.

However, either way doesn't involve anything equivalent to passive smoking. Even if yo don't like the sight of someone sniffing powdered tobacco up their nose, or putting it in their mouths, they aren't pushing it up your nose, or stuffing it in your mouth.