A 12-year study of 135,000 Swedish men found that smokeless tobacco users were 1.4 times more likely to die of heart disease than those who did not use tobacco in any form.
Smokeless tobacco has previously been linked to heart disease, just as cigarettes have, but scientists are not sure why. They suspect nicotine.A study by researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, which is published in today's edition of the American Journal of Public Health, followed 135,000 construction workers from 1974 through 1985.
Of that number, 6,297 used smokeless tobacco, 14,983 smoked fewer than 15 cigarettes a day, 13,518 smoked more than 15 cigarettes a day and 32,546 had never used tobacco. The remainder had used tobacco in the past.
Adjusted for such things as weight, blood pressure and history of heart symptoms, smokeless-tobacco users were 1.4 times as likely to die of heart disease as people who never used tobacco.