The Swedish medical journal Läkartidningen has written an article claiming that new research reveals snus users face a higher risk of heart failure compared with those who neither smoke nor use snus, generating headlines across Sweden after it was picked up by the TT newswire. 

But according to Tryggve Ljung, Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Swedish Match, the study, by Gabriel Arefalk, chief physician at Uppsala University Academic Hospital, is based on old data the quality of which has already been questioned. 

Ljung points out that the new study is based on a survey of Swedish construction workers, the main findings of which have already been published. 

He says that a link between snus use and heart failure had only been found in one out of the eight groups analyzed in the study, and that the link had only been seen in heart failure that had not been preceded by a heart attack, suggesting a direct effect on the heart muscle rather than an atherosclerosis-related effect. 

The claim that using snus increases the risk of suffering a heart attack, which generated headlines in several Swedish newspapers, is not backed up by the study, Ljung says. 

“The risk of snus users dying because of a heart attack has not increased according to Arefalk’s study,” he tells Snusforumet. 

On the other hand, a slightly increased mortality was seen in the group of snus users who had never smoked, compared with non-users of tobacco.

“For snus users who previously smoked, there was no increased mortality compared to smokers who completely stopped using tobacco, which strengthens the argument that snus can contribute to improved health by offering an alternative to smoking,” Ljung says.