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The smokeless tobacco known as snus, was long an important part of the Swedish-American community. Of the many letters sent back to friends and relatives in the old country “det gamla hemlandet” many asked for sending more snus over the Atlantic.

Eventually, the letters back to Sweden stopped and the Swedish-American population switch to customs of their new home. Which might have been problematic, as in the early 20^th century, many Americans switched from various forms of smokeless tobacco to cigarettes?

The basic problem with tobacco is that it is addictive and poses a risk to health. This is true for all of its forms. But smoking tobacco increases the risks, since the combustion produces hundreds of carcinogenic and teratogenic chemicals which are directly breathed into the lungs. This seems to be a very important factor behind lung cancer, and over 90 percent of all lung cancer cases are estimated to be linked to smoking. Smokeless tobacco avoids the lung cancer issue (oral cancer is still a risk, as for smoking). This is very evident in cancer statistics in Sweden, where snus is widely used among men but there is a significantly lower incidence of lung cancer than in the rest of Europe but only among men. For women the incidence is about equal.

In Sweden the use of snus continued, and more than 50 years of research in Sweden points to the fact that snus is 98 percent safer than cigarettes (if nothing else because of the lack of combustion near the oral cavity). Statistically, the average life span of smokers is eight years shorter than for non-smokers, but for users of smokeless tobacco it is just 15 days shorter.

Men in Sweden have consistently had the lowest smoking rate in Europe, thanks in part to the use of snus, and the World Health Organization's own statistics show it: Sweden has the lowest rates of lung cancer in the European Union. The same goes for pancreatic cancer, one of the main cancer types associated with tobacco use. What raises Sweden's figures in the lung cancer statistics is the fact that Swedish women smoke as much as women in other European countries, although this is changing now as more women are also switching to snus.

Now, there are various types of smokeless tobacco for sale in the US but it is marketed as an alternative to cigarettes for the places where you are not allowed to smoke. It cannot be marketed as a less harmful alternative to cigarettes. Today, the discussion on tobacco harm reduction is framed in such a way as to emphasize that reduced harm tobacco products and cigarettes are equal in risk, and the consumers are often left thinking, "I might just as well continue to smoke".

Maybe the “vanligt folk” (regular folks) coming to Minnesota from Sweden had the better alternative back then. Discussing harm reduction for tobacco would touch upon the best conservative principles of freedom of choice, enabling personal responsibility and standing up against a nanny state mentality. While opening up for a better alternative to the quite real dangers of smoking.