WARM2Kids, Inc.

Something to Chew Over

Dark brown drool all over your face, stained teeth, open sores inside your mouth, constant spitting, teeth loose and falling out- sounds hot right?

Most people turn to chewing tobacco or snuff because they think it’s cool. We see baseball players spitting out the stuff all the time- before they pitch, before they bat, while they’re hanging out in the dugout…but we only see it from a distance. What we don’t see is the up-close views of what their addiction is doing to their bodies.

Others try smokeless tobacco because they think Hey, there’s no smoke entering my lungs…I’m not even swallowing anything! I’m spitting it out. It must be safer than cigarettes. But if anyone’s ever told you this, don’t believe them. Smokeless tobacco does not have exactly the same physical consequences as smoking, but the problems it causes are just as dangerous.

Unlike with cigarettes, it only takes a few weeks for the physical effects of smokeless tobacco to show up in your mouth. The damage is almost always visible- stained teeth, horrible breath, sores in your mouth- and hard to disguise. For some people, a very short time of using has meant spending the rest of their lives with a disfigured face. Think about it: if you develop any serious problems in your mouth that have to be removed or treated, it’s going to leave some serious marks on your face, is it worth it?

Besides just being so completely damaging, smokeless tobacco is also highly addictive. Holding a little dip in your mouth for awhile puts the same amount of nicotine directly into your blood stream as several cigarettes. Ask some of those same baseball players who you see spitting during games, about quitting and certainly many will tell you that they have tried over and over again without success. Once you go down that road, it’s very hard to come back.

One major thing that cigarettes, chew, and snuff all have in common is that they can be deadly. Holding the tobacco in your mouth causes the nicotine to go straight into your blood stream. It also can quickly produce precancerous lesions called Leukoplakia and Erythroplakias. For some people it may be years before these lesions appear, for others it may not take long at all, but studies have shown that 91% of people who developed some type of oral cancer had used smokeless tobacco!

Before you put that first little dip into your mouth think about this- is being a person known for their disgusting breath, brown teeth and drooling problem really worth all the risks? The answer should be obvious

By: Katie Preissler


	Center for Disease Control Tobacco Prevention Click here to see reviews for these and other Smokeless Tobacco web sites.


	Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Click an item to learn how to contact support or click here for more support options.

Holding an average size dip or chew in your mouth for 30 minutes puts as much nicotine in your system as how many cigarettes?

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Joe Garagiola is a former baseball player and award winning sports broadcaster. He also chairs the National Spit Tobacco Education Program. Though he used to use smokeless tobacco in his playing days, he now devotes himself to spreading the word (especially to current baseball players) on how dangerous smokeless tobacco is.

Bill Tuttle was an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Athletics, and the Minnesota Twins who chewed tobacco for most of his career. Years after his baseball career had ended, he developed a tumor in his cheek so big that it burst through his skin. In removing the tumor, the doctors also had to remove most of Tuttle’s face including his jawbone, a cheekbone, several of his teeth and his taste buds. After that, Tuttle and his wife Gloria spent the rest of his life trying to convince people young and old to quit tobacco products. In 1998 another cancer finally ended his life.

The information provided on this site should not replace your physician’s advice.