Nicotine on its own is no more harmful than caffeine, it's other stuff in tobacco that gets you (and burning it doesn't help). So I'm still skeptical that "cold cured" snus would be safe.
I think the evidence regarding swedish snus shows that it is far less carcinogenic than traditionally-cured oral tobacco, but still significantly carcinogenic. In particular, swedish snus has very little in the way of nitrosamines [1], a major carcinogenic element of heat-cured tobacco products.
RE: harmfulness of nicotine, my impression was that it was a little more harmful to the heart than caffeine. I suppose this would depend on dosage, which is difficult to compare.
