Take the Challenge

How much do you know about smoking bans? Answer these questions and find out.

Cigarettes
Cigars
Smokeless
Bidis and Kreteks/Cloves

DID YOU KNOW?

Adolescents who use smokeless tobacco are more likely to become cigarette smokers.

 

READ MORE

Smokeless

snuff

Spit or Smokeless Tobacco: A Safe Alternative to Cigarettes? Not by a Long Shot.

Fact: Spit tobacco contains as many as 28 known cancer-causing chemicals. (17)

Fact: Spit tobacco delivers 3-4 times the nicotine delivered by a cigarette. (2)

Fact: Nearly 3 million people under age 21 in the U.S. use spit tobacco regularly. (10)

Spit, or smokeless, tobacco is sold in two forms:

  • chewing tobacco (loose leaf, plug or twist) and
  • snuff (loose leaf or moist “dip”)

Of all of the forms, “dip” is the most popular. In fact, between 1986 and 1995, sales of “dip” tobacco increased 3-fold (3). Although the exact reasons for this increase aren’t clear, we do know that the use of many types of spit tobacco started increasing in the 1970s and early 1980s when advertising increased and many people thought that smokeless tobacco was a safe alternative to smoking.

Think again: As early as 1986 the Surgeon General Report concluded that smokeless tobacco represents a significant health risk and that it is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes. Many teens, however, still haven’t gotten the message: according to several studies, high-school boys are among the heaviest users of spit or smokeless tobacco.

So just what, exactly, is in spit tobacco that makes it so dangerous to your health?

  • Nitrosamines—powerful cancer-causing agents
  • Polonium 210—radioactive particles that turn into radon
  • Formaldehyde—embalming fluid
  • Cadmium—a metallic element; its salts are poisonous
  • Arsenic—a metallic element which forms poisonous compounds

Not surprisingly, spit tobacco poses serious health risks for regular users, including:

  • Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents (carcinogens). (17)
  • It is a cause of cancer,5 by increasing the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity. (17)
  • Other oral health problems strongly associated with smokeless tobacco are receding (depleting) gums and leukoplakia (a lesion of the soft tissue, or white patch or plaque, that cannot be scraped off). (17)
  • Adolescents who use smokeless tobacco are more likely to become cigarette smokers. (17)

If you or someone you love uses spit tobacco, please urge them to quit.

BACK TO TOP

Rates of Smokeless Tobacco Use (18) Smokeless tobacco use in the US is higher among

3% of adults are current smokeless tobacco users

Ethnic breakdown for adults

8% of high school students are current smokeless tobacco users.

Ethnic breakdown for high school students

3% of middle school students are current smokeless tobacco users

Ethnic breakdown for middle school students:

references | updated: 10.30.2007

references

  1. Hatsukami DK, Severson HH. Oral spit tobacco: addiction, prevention and treatment. Nicotine and tobacco research 1999; I, 21-44.
  2. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved December 2003 from http://www.cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/3_63.htm.
  3. Maxwell J . 1995. The Maxwell consumer report: the smokeless tobacco industry in 1994. Richmond, Virginia: Wheat First Butcher Singer.
  4. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved December 2003 from http://www.dccps.nci.nih.gov/tcrb/less_effects.html.
  5. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Retrieved December 2003 from http://www.tobaccofreekids.org.
  6. Bolinder G, Alfredsson L, Englund A, de Faire U. Smokeless tobacco use and increased cardiovascular mortality among Swedish construction workers. Am J Public Health 1994; 84(3):399-404.
  7. Huhtasaari F, Lundberg V, Eliasson M, Janlert U, Asplund K. Smokeless tobacco as a possible risk factor for myocardial infarction: a population-based study in middle-aged men. J Am Coll Cardiol 1999; 34(6):1784-1790.
  8. American Lung Association, Retrieved January 2004 from http://www.lungsandiego.org/tobacco/
    kids_stats_national.asp.
  9. Euereka Alert. Retrieved January 4, 2004 from http://www.eurekalert.org/
    10. pub_releases/2003-12/uom-tsc121903.php.
  10. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved January 2004 from http://dccps.nci.nih.gov/ tcrb/less_facts.html January 9, 2004.
  11. Campaign for Tobocco Free Kids. Retrieved January 2004 from http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:z02ByMtVR-oJ:tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0106.pdf+spit+tobacco+use+ among+teens&hl=en&ie=UTF-8.
  12. Tobacco 21. Retrieved January 2004 from http://www.tobacco21.org/war/.
  13. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved January 2004 from http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancerinfo/tobacco/information.
  14. National Network for Health. Retrieved January 2004 from http://www.nnh.org/tobacco/a-4-2.htm.
  15. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Retrieved January 2004 from http://www.nidr.nih.gov/health/newsandhealth/spitTobacco.asp.
  16. United States Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved January 2004 from http://www.hhs.gov/news/speeches/SPITTOBACCO.html.
  17. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fact Sheet, Tobacco Brand Preferences. Retrieved October 31, 2007 from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/Factsheets/tobacco_brand_pref.htm.
  18. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fact Sheet, Smokeless Tobacco. Retrieved October 31, 2007 from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/Factsheets/smokeless_tobacco.htm.

close references