Index for posts concerning snuff

That Burning Cool sensation! by Darth B'strad
4 comments

In Praise of Snuff (Nasal) by Bieren Skidels
7 comments

That Burning Cool sensation!

Posted on January 26th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Beer, Orig. Literature, Itelligent Life, Creative Writing, snuff.

So Bieren been taking baths everyday since we moved into this house a little over two years ago, and he claims that he’s been doing so since 12 or something like that. But recently he’s decided to make them much more that just a bathing experience, it’s gotta be therapeutic as well! So what does he do: He orders in pounds of bath salt, cayenne pepper, menthol, and tons of different fragrance oils! (and later he plains on making soap with it, think fight club) So he comes up with some sort of mix that sits him well and takes a bath with it every morning, so this being my day off, I figured I should give it a try. So not knowing what the right mix is, I just started throwing in what I figured would do the trick. I took a cup of that whatever the heck it is salt and dumped that in. Then I didn’t really know how much cayenne pepper would be burning the heck out of me but I figured three scoops of that teaspoon thing he stuck in there would do the trick (I was wondering where that went). Throw in some drops of menthol and some of the other weird oils in there, and presto! I’ve got a bath filled with stuff that’s going to burn the heck out of my skin and feel like ice on my body after I get out! So taking the first steps in I did start to feel burning! I thought the temperature of the water might be a little too much so I dumped in some cold water, but they were still burning! But thous feeties have been giving me crap for the past two weeks so I just thought that they should burn! So then I’ve got to put the rest of my body in, start soaking it all in! Well it wasn’t bad at all, not too hot, but I do have to agree that it was stimulating, especially on my thingy (let’s just say that it was an odd sensation). Although the water level got too high. You know that great invention where they put this little drain hole on the front of the tub so that it doesn’t overfill and spill out? Well it’s a great invention, the only problem is that ours just dumps it though the light socket in our kitchen ceiling rather than the drain. So I had to clean that up! But you just get up out of the water, wash off the last day, and then you get that cool menthol sensation. When all said and done, it’s a good experience! I get out and start sipping a PBR at 1 in the afternoon, sometimes the bachelor life has it’s perks but where out of snuff. Gotta go get that overpriced presidente for the week. But after all that, DP tells me that Bieren wraps up his thingy to keep from that burning sensation! What a wuss! Oh well, I’ve got bible study at the falling rock tonight and I’ll take the bus this time. Invot says he’s keep on making fun of me if I get completely plastered at a bible study! But come on now man! I’ll just get to the good buzzed state of .1 rather than the usual plastered of .25! You gotta have faith man! Oh and on the bolg note: when are we going to change up the look?

4 comments.

In Praise of Snuff (Nasal)

Posted on February 26th, 2007 by Bieren Skidels.
Categories: Itelligent Life, snuff.

Nasal Snuff! what’s that?

Isn’t it that weird stuff you sniff up your nose, that only old fisherman and a few “salty dogs” do?

I am here today to talk to you about sniffing tobacco up your nose. And, I will argue that this is not only an awesome activity, but that an increased awareness of it may save hundreds of thousands of lives by getting cigarette smokers to switch to snuff.

1. Intro - What is Snuff?

A great intro and jumping off point for information about snuff is given at snuffbox.org. Snuff is the original way tobacco was taken, after being brought to Europe from the New World. Snuff is powdered tobacco which you sniff up your nose. Many people mix up this term with American-style snuff that you “dip” or “chew” in your lips/mouth. This is NOT chew, or dip - it is nasal snuff, I hope the distinction is clear.

snuffbox.org states:

Tobacco snuff is made by selecting tobacco leaf (and also sometimes tobacco stalk, as in e.g. Irish High Dry Toast) and disintegrating it into a coarse powder. It is next ground in a manual or mechanical mill, and then sieved. Various essential oils may then be added for flavouring, after which it is stored in airtight containers to allow the flavour to permeate uniformly.

2. It’s Cool - Why Snuff?

There is a great selection of snuff online, ranging from finely ground dry snuff flavored with whiskey all the way to dark moist tobacco from Zimbabwe scented with sandlewood and ceder. Nasal snuff was listed at Arthur’s Hall as the “manliest tobacco” you could take:

“Today, the major users of snuff tend to be crusty old fisherman, and other such salty dogs. […] you may consider yourself the manliest of manly men.”

I originally was introduced to snuff, while in Davos, Switzerland. Three German mountain men were sitting around the bar sniffing something brown and chanting powerful German phrases (reminding me of Beethoven’s “Es Muss Sein” - IT MUST BE!). I asked the group what it was and they promptly offered me some McChrystal’s - this is my standard snuff today.

All over the world smoking is being banned indoors. Snuff can easily and quickly be done indoors, during a movie, during a meeting, etc…

The buzz is much cleaner than smoking - the nicotine goes into your blood without all the smoke and other byproducts which also effect your brain.

It does not effect the others around you, issues of secondhand effects (outside of your own body) are no longer an issue.

Whereas, chewing or dipping (other smokeless tobaccos) present the possibility of oral cancer/degradation and tons of expectorating, including nasty cans of spit lying around - nasal snuff involves none of that and is much cleaner (just powder). Also, you can enjoy a meal or beer - virtually unhindered by your tobacco while doing snuff - whereas chew, being in your mouth, will obviously interfere with other oral activities.

Snuff is way cheap! a 10g or even 20g tin can be bought for only a few bucks ($1.50-$3), see marscigars.com for a great selection at great prices. But how much is 10g? 1g of sturdy snuff is about the nicotine equivalent of 10-20 cigarettes - Hence you can get the equivalent of 5-10 packs of cigarettes for ~$2 total.

And the biggie, it’s a very healthy alternative to smoking or chew.

3. Health - Who Knew?

Actually not many people know that there is no evidence of any association of cancer with nasal snuff. I know the denier flags are probably going up right now, you are assuming this is just another defense of tobacco like all the cigarette companies used to give. Actually not, I sincerely wanted to understand the health implications for my own good - and I did an independent survey of the topic. Here is what I’ve found:

Most of the studies apply to all ST (smokeless tobacco) and so you can ignore the warnings about “oral cancer”, which does not apply to nasal snuff.

A good starting point is the article “You might as well smoke; the misleading and harmful public message about smokeless tobacco” - a study done at the University of Texas Medical School, by Dr. Carl V. Phillips (the director at the time of print - research institute, Center for Philosophy, Health, and Policy Sciences). To summarize, they conclude that the majority of information presented by government, advocacy, and educational organizations about smokeless tobacco are false and harmful, “representing violations of ethical standards.” If some types of smokeless tobacco present risks “in the range of a few percent of the risk from smoking, or even less” then obviously “smokers can realize substantial health benefits by switching to ST.” The fact that this is most often not presented clearly is designated as a violation of ethical standards. In particular they targeted American and British government sources on health info which had stated basically that ST was not safer than smoking (which is obviously false according to many many studies, sources to follow). This study also pointed out false statements by the American Cancer Society, World Health Organization, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Many of these statements have been retracted or changed, some have not.

The latter study was conducted in 2003, more recent studies have done some work to fix this false information.

The “European Union policy on smokeless tobacco: a statement in favour of evidence based regulation for public health.” states the following:

smokeless tobacco is substantially less harmful than smoking and evidence from Sweden suggests it is used as a substitute for smoking and for smoking cessation. To the extent there is a “gateway” it appears not to lead to smoking, but away from it and is an important reason why Sweden has the lowest rates of tobacco related disease in Europe. - 2003 Dec

This more recent article, “Helping Smokers Quit: A Role for Smokeless Tobacco” from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), summarizes itself as:

It reviews the epidemiologic evidence for low health risks associated with smokeless use, both in absolute terms and in comparison to the much higher risks of smoking. The report also describes evidence that smokeless tobacco has served as an effective substitute for cigarettes among Swedish men, who consequently have among the lowest smoking related mortality rates in the developed world. The report documents the fact that extensive misinformation about smokeless tobacco products is widely available from ostensibly reputable sources, including governmental health agencies and major health organizations. The American Council on Science and Health believes that strong support of tobacco harm reduction is fully consistent with its mission to promote sound science in regulation and in public policy, and to assist consumers in distinguishing real health threats from spurious health claims. As this report documents, there is a strong scientific and medical foundation for tobacco harm reduction, which shows great potential as a public health strategy to help millions of smokers. - 2006 OCT

An ACSH press release discusses this article.

Early studies (from the mid 90’s) on the issue of smokeless tobacco as a harm reduction strategy to smoking were conducted by Dr. Brad Rodu, a professor of pathology and dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The following articles can be accessed at drrodu.com

For Smokers Only - The Clinical Trial….Evidence That Smokeless Can Help You Quit - A Pilot Study of Smokeless Tobacco in Smoking Cessation. Published in The American Journal of Medicine (Volume 104, pages 456-458, May 1998) by Ken Tilashalski, Brad Rodu and Philip Cole.

An Alternative Approach to Smoking Control. Published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences (Volume 308, pages 32-34, July 1994) by Brad Rodu.

The question then is, well if you can’t get cancer from nasal snuff - what are the negatives?

Nicotine is very addictive and has many effects. Nicotine acts on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. In small concentrations it increases the activity of these receptors, among other things leading to an increased flow of adrenaline, a stimulating hormone. The release of adrenaline causes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and respiration, as well as higher glucose levels in the blood. In sane doses nicotine is not considered fatally toxic - but obviously it has some effects (otherwise why would people do it). Nicotine is the reason I do snuff, and of course I must be aware of the less-than-desirable effects that go along with the relaxation, calmness, and concurrent altertness that I gain from taking nicotine. This is a decision that is up to grown adults to make for themselves.

It should be noted that nicotine freely crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants. And as such, pregnant women should not be in contact with nicotine unless they want their children to possibly be born already addicted. This is a serious issue that applies equally to nasal snuff, as well as cigarette smoke.

Besides the obvious nicotine effects, what negative effects might snuff have? In 2005, a paper was written in India which indentified “chronic rhinitis” (stuffy/runny nose) as a possible symptom after prolonged use. The article “Effect of snuff on Nasal Mucosa” concludes that “nasal snuff is not a suitable substitute for smoked tobacco because it does not avoid ill health.”

The article has some glaring issues. There were very few users studied (29) all from southern India. Users in the study sniffed a minimum of 20g a day. The article “Assessing the Nicotine Content of Smokeless Tobacco Products”, published in the Journal of the American Dental Association (Volume 125, pages 590-594, May 1994) by Ken Tilashalski, Brad Rodu and Charles Mayfield found nicotine range of 0.59 to 3.35% of the smokeless tobacco dry weight. (5.9 - 33.5 mg/g). I also understand that only about 1mg of nicotine is absorbed in 1 cigarette. Assuming on the low end - say maybe 10 mg/g - a person who smokes a pack-a-day, would only need 2g of snuff a day for equal nicotine… much less than the 20g a day the subjects in the study were using. I use <10g a week. If a person was using about 2g a day, and cleaning their nose each day - would chronic rhinitis be expected? If it is not conclusive that snuff use of 2g a day would result in chronic rhinitis then it would also NOT be conclusive that snuff is NOT a good alternative to smoking? Note that based on my calculations, the subjects in the study were getting as much nicotine as someone who smokes 5.9 - 33.5 packs a day… a rather large amount. Nobody I know (or know in online nasal snuff community) uses this much (20g / day).

A fellow user of snufftalk.org message boards noted:

“Does not avoid ill health”–pish! They’re avoiding bronchitis, lung cancer, oral cancer, esophageal cancer, secondhand smoke…. Funny how their data led me to the exact opposite conclusion as they– that snuff is a rather safe form of tobacco usage, as far as we can tell! “

Obviously the conclusion of this article overreaches its own very sketchy evidence.

It should be noted, that if you stuff your nose full of almost anything and leave it in there all the time, you might develop a chronically stuffy nose, and hence - any snuff user should know how to clean their nose. Many clean their nose with a saline (salt water) nasal spray, which you can find almost any grocery store or make your own. I have an interesting alternative and cleaning suggestion:

4. Nasal upkeep with Cayenne Pepper for Nasal Snuff Users

While I wouldn’t attempt to claim that sniffing cayenne pepper warrants a fourth section to this general intro article “In Praise of Nasal Snuff”, it is indeed my article - and hence I choose to dedicate this space to my own little interest - sniffing cayenne pepper.

I had always sniffed cayenne pepper for my allergies growing up… It worked ok for helping with allergies - but one thing it did super-well was to clear my nose out and heal the inside… When I was sniffing cayenne pepper my nose was not only very clear, but the inside was strong, moist - very healthy

Cayenne pepper increases the circulation to the area of contact and all throughout your body (among many great effects) - helping repair and amplify the senses, skin, etc…

At the end of a day of hard snuffing, I have a layer - and some serious build-up in my nose. I give each nostril a sniff of cayenne pepper and I am blowing clear snot in two blows - the nose is warm feeling for about 10-15 minutes and then completely regenerated afterwards. To the touch, the inside of my nose shows no signs of drying or cracking. (which is a big deal because I live in Denver - and every winter of my life my nose gets so dry I get bloody noses) But not anymore! not when I sniff cayenne pepper to keep my nose healthy and sensitive to the beauties of the world (namely, nasal snuff!)

so… to help maintain good circulation and general nose health - as well as a quick way to clean your nose… I suggest sniffing cayenne pepper

5. Links

snuffbox.org.uk good intro and details on nasal snuff

snufftalk.org good info and discussion about snuff

snuffhouse.org another forum for discussion of snuff!

marscigars.com Mars Cigars and Pipes is a store in PA that has a great selection of snuff

Fribourg & Treyer of Blessed Memory a story of an old snuff house, from snuffbox.org.uk

Varieties of Snuff from snuffbox.org.uk

- Bieren snuffs McChrystals

7 comments.