Swedish-style snuff booms in the US as more people quit smoking.

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The American television news magazine 60 Minutes, with millions of viewers each week, on Sunday evening featured on smokeless tobacco and the recent boom of snus in the United States.

Swedish snus, a tobacco product that you consume by placing it under the lip, is banned in all EU countries except Sweden. It has gained a lot of popularity in the US owing to new no smoking laws that have come to effect all over country.

Today smoking rate in the US is half of what it was 40 years ago. As cigarette sales plunge, tobacco companies are marketing smokeless products to keep customers.

Tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris have launched Marlboro and Camel snus. The US market is also of growing importance for Swedish smokeless tobacco maker Swedish Match.

Although the news show aimed to investigate both the pros and cons, the core message in the report was that smokeless tobacco may help you to quit smoking cigarettes and that it’s less harmful.

Swedish nicotine addiction expert Dr Karl Fagerström stated that snus is 90-99 percent less harmful than smoking.

The famous Swedish TV host Martin Timell explained that his mother died of lung cancer and that he was only able to quit smoking by switching to snus.

The counterpoint was an interview with an American control advocate who expressed concerns about many tobacco users becoming dual users (of both cigarettes and snus) and said that sometimes snus products look like candy to attract children.

All in all the news report was very good publicity for snus.

“We welcome the fact that such a well-respected show as 60 Minutes has produced such a fair and factual documentary about snus”, tobacco company Swedish Match spokesperson Rupini Bergström told The Swedish Wire.

“Snus is well-known in Sweden and awareness in the US of snus as a spitfree product has grown quite a lot over the past two years, though it is still relatively unknown by many. We would expect the snus market in the US to grow with increased awareness of the category".

Watch the television show here.