Snus’s generational impact on asthma and allergies

“What a boy puts in his mouth at age 14 can affect the health of children he may not have for another 15–20 years.” This is the key finding highlighted by Vivi Schlünssen, Professor and Deputy Head of Research at the Department of Public Health at Aarhus University. The study examined whether a father’s use of snus -particularly when initiated during puberty - may increase the risk of asthma and allergies in his future children.

The study followed more than 1,000 father-child pairs in Sweden and found that boys who start using snus before age 15 have children with 42% higher odds of allergic asthma and more than double the odds of chronic bronchitis. The analysis was adjusted for confounding variables, such as the father’s age, smoking history, and grand paternal education.

"We had already seen this with smoking, but we were surprised to find the same signal from snus. It's an exposure you intuitively think of as more localised - it takes place in the mouth, after all. But our results suggest that it is enough to produce a systemic effect," said Schlünssen.

The study has extra resonance as the EU prepares the groundwork for its revision of the Tobacco Products Directive. Sweden’s government has been a vociferous defender of snus and a harm-reduction approach as a valuable contributor to the country's enviable smoking rate, at just over 5% of the population. This latest study shows that the harms associated with nicotine addiction may be more far reaching than assumed.

In their conclusion, the authors write that the evidence underscores the need for public health efforts that may prevent harm not only to a user's future health but also that of their children.

Tobacco taxation talks reveal divisions between member states

EU finance ministers discussed the European Commission’s plan to overhaul tobacco taxation on Friday 10 October, exposing sharp divisions over how far and how fast to go

Vital SignsCatherine Feore