Oral Smokeless Tobacco Use with Special Reference to India

The term smokeless tobacco is used to describe tobacco consumed in unburnt form orally or nasally [1, 2, 3]. Smokeless tobacco products have been in existence for thousands of years among populations of South America and Southeast Asia. Smokeless tobacco products differ with respect to their composition, nicotine delivery characteristics and method of use [4]. They range from crude twists of cured tobacco leaves to the highly engineered moist snuff products or Gutkha. Oral use of tobacco is either in chewable form or as a dentifrice. Fine tobacco powder mixtures, dry snuffs are usually inhaled. Nicotine is absorbed through mucosa of the mouth or the nasal passages [5]