In the 11/15/05 report on the "safety" of smokeless tobacco, ABC provided a quote from a University of Michigan "doctor" who claimed that using smokeless tobacco is much safer than smoking tobacco. Unfortunately, ABC didn't bother to tell viewers that the individual, Dr. Kenneth Warner, has a doctorate in economics, not medicine. Poor reporting, ABC!

Correct. These entities including various medical and research clinicians who are touting the use of smokeless tobacco as a 'less harmful' alternative to smoking have no real life research to back their claims. In accord with nationally accepted guidelines, health care standards, and 'Best Practices", the West Virginia DHHR, Bureau for Public Health, Division of Tobacco Prevention recommend that all employers develop and implement written tobacco-free policies that incorporate best practices to provide all employees a tobacco-free work environment, including voluntary personal smoking and spit tobacco cessation programs. Given the negative health affects associated with smokeless tobacco use, its clear identification as a "gateway" drug in leading to other substance use, including cigarettes, and the availability of safe, over-the-counter, nitrosamine-free nicotine replacement products, (it is DTP and others opinion that) smokeless tobacco should never be suggested as an alternative to smoking cigarettes.