Breanna Brecks Mr. Drobny English 101 Period 4 17 November 2013 “Smokeless” Tobacco “You don’t smoke it. You dont swallow it. All you do is slosh it around your mouth and spit out the brown Juices every few seconds” (Bellenir 79). Let’s explore the topic smokeless tobacco (ST), more commonly known as chewing tobacco, spitting tobacco, chew, snuff, dip, or spit. Smokeless tobacco comes in two forms: chewing tobacco or snuff (“Top Facts: Spit / Smokeless Tobacco”).
My curiosity about chewing tobacco was originally about the harmful side effects that this form of tobacco takes on a person. However, as I started to think more about chewing tobacco, I began to wonder what age group is primarily effected by chewing tobacco and how cigarettes compare to smokeless tobacco. To begin, studies show that smokeless tobacco is used mostly by high school and college students. In the early seventies, men from the age seventeen to nineteen used smokeless tobacco less than any other age group.
Studies in the past few years show that this age group has the highest number of smokeless tobacco users than any other age group today (“Smokeless Tobacco Facts”). As Karen Bellenir put it in her book Tobacco Information for Teens, “As many as 20% of high school boys and 2% of high school girls use smokeless tobacco, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of the 12 to 14 million American users, one third are under age 21, and more than half of those developed the habit before they were 13” (80).
Although statistics show that the largest age group is under twenty one years old, three percent of American adults are also smokeless tobacco users and around sixteen percent of athletes use mokeless tobacco too (“Top Facts: Spit / Smokeless Tobacco”). The harmful side effects of smokeless tobacco can be split into two categories: the immediate effects and the possible long-term effects. The immediate effects consist of bad breath, stained teeth, and around seventy percent of the users report that it causes sores in their mouth (Bellenir 82).
This doesn’t seem too bad and can probably be cured by a piece of gum, brushing of the teeth, and some occasional mouth wash, however, the possible long-term effects don’t seem to be so minor and easily fixed. The more serious consequences of smokeless tobacco are cracking of the lips and gums, receding gums which can lead to teeth falling out, increased heart rate and high blood pressure which raise the risk of a heart attack, loss of taste buds, and last but not least, cancer (Bellenir 82).
Oral cancer can happen to the lips, the cheeks, the gums, bottom and top of the mouth, and the tongue. But that’s not all the cancer that smokeless tobacco can cause, ST extends in cancerous capabilities to other parts of the body too. It can cause cancer of the stomach, larynx, esophagus, ladder, and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (“Top Facts: Spit / Smokeless Tobacco”). smokeless tobacco can have on a person if it is used to a long period of time. They both chew tobacco for the majority of their careers.
Nearly forty years after Tuttle’s baseball career ended, the inside of Tuttle’s cheek become a huge tumor and it eventually expanded through the skin on the outside of his cheek too. When the doctors removed his tumor they also had to remove a lot of his face. Smokeless tobacco ultimately cost Tuttle his Jawbone, his right cheekbone, the majority of his eeth gum line, and his ability to taste. Babe Ruth had an oropharyngeal tumor, which is a cancerous tumor located in the back of the throat.
In the end, chewing tobacco claimed both of these mans’ lives at a fairly young age (Bellenir 81-82). Works Cited Bellenir, Karen, ed. Tobacco Information for Teens. Omnigraphics: Detriot, 2007. Print. “Smokeless Tobacco Facts. ” University of Minnesota. Regents of the University of Minnesota, 2003. web. 17 NOV. 2013. “Top Facts: Spit / Smokeless Tobacco. ” Tobaccofreeu. org. The Bacchus Network, Feb. 2009. web. 17 NOV. 2013. f Minnesota
