Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings of the 2006 study by McNeill and West in the British Medical Journal that chewed tobacco is a major cause of oral cancer, if his Department will make an assessment of the safety of chewing tobacco products; and if he will make a statement.

No formal assessment of the safety of chewing tobacco has been made and there are no current plans to assess its impact on health inequalities among Bengali women. However, traditional smokeless tobacco products are harmful to health by causing oral, oesophageal and pancreatic cancers. It remains our policy to help people to quit all forms of tobacco use through behavioural support from stop smoking services, nicotine replacement therapy or e-cigarettes.