smokeless tobacco gateway page

the bottom line

Smokeless (spit) tobacco may not be smoked, but it is still tobacco, and it is definitely not harmless.

definition

The types of tobacco that people dip or chew are sometimes called "smokeless" tobacco. Some health experts don't like this name for them, though, because they are worried that people might think that "smokeless" means "harmless." They prefer to call these products "spit tobacco," because this term doesn't suggest that the products are harmless -- and because it also serves as a reminder that people who use these products have to spit tobacco juice -- which is rather disgusting.

explanation

Like all tobacco, smokeless contains nicotine, which is addictive. If you hold an average size dip or chew in your mouth for 30 minutes, you get as much nicotine as you do from three cigarettes. People can easily become addicted to dip or chew, just as they can become addicted to cigarettes, and this can make quitting very difficult.

Many people believe that smokeless tobacco is harmless because it doesn't cause lung cancer. While smokeless is safer than smoking, this does not mean that smokeless tobacco is safe. Using smokeless (spit) tobacco is very hard on your mouth and can cause a lot of damage there.

As you probably know if any of your friends dip or chew, smokeless tobacco stains your teeth -- and tooth-brushing doesn't remove the stains. It can also stain any white fillings that your dentist may have put in your teeth when you had cavities; the staining makes the fillings more noticeable.

Grit in smokeless tobacco scratches teeth and wears away the hard surface (enamel). This can make your teeth sensitive (meaning that they are more likely to hurt), and you may need dental treatment to correct the problem.

Using dip or snuff can also injure your gums, especially in the spot in the mouth where you hold the tobacco. The injured gums will pull away from your teeth, exposing the roots of your teeth to decay and making your teeth more sensitive. Your teeth may become loose and eventually fall out or have to be removed by a dentist.

Using smokeless tobacco also increases tooth decay (cavities). When smokeless tobacco is manufactured, sugar is added to improve the taste. The sugar reacts with bacteria in your mouth, causing the production of acid, which leads to tooth decay.

Smokeless tobacco users sometimes think that they can avoid mouth problems by being very conscientious about brushing and flossing their teeth. But there is no scientific evidence that taking good care of your teeth will undo the harm that dip or chew can cause.

People who use smokeless tobacco may develop various kinds of sores, white patches, red patches, and lumps inside their mouths. These changes are signs that your mouth is being damaged by contact with tobacco and tobacco juice. The beginnings of these changes can be detected within seven days after a person starts to use smokeless tobacco. Some of these changes -- especially the white and red patches -- are precancerous, meaning that they can turn into cancer.

This brings us to the most serious problem that smokeless tobacco can cause -- oral (mouth) cancer. Oral cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. People with this type of cancer may need to have surgery that permanently changes their appearance. Oral cancer can also spread quickly to other parts of the body. That's why people who get this kind of cancer often die from it. Only half of the people who get oral cancer live for more than five years.

The longer you dip or chew, the higher your risk of oral cancer. However, long-term users of smokeless tobacco aren't the only ones who are at risk of getting oral cancer. Cancers have been found in the mouths of people who have used smokeless tobacco for as few as six years. There's even a very well known case in which a young athlete who used smokeless tobacco died of oral cancer at the age of 19!

Using smokeless tobacco can also worsen health problems in parts of the body other than the mouth. Because nicotine tightens up blood vessels, using smokeless tobacco can make high blood pressure worse. Smokeless tobacco can also contribute to ulcers (a disease of the stomach or upper small intestine) because smokeless tobacco users tend to swallow some tobacco juice by accident, and that juice irritates the lining of the stomach.

As you can see, smokeless tobacco can do a lot of things to your body. But there's one important thing that it doesn't do -- it doesn't help you to perform better in sports. A study of professional baseball players found no connection between the use of smokeless tobacco and player performance. In fact, the "buzz" or rush that people feel when they use smokeless tobacco may actually worsen an athlete's performance because it is caused by an increase in heart rate and blood pressure that puts a strain on the heart.