$Unique_ID{BRK00685}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Can Using Chewing Tobacco Cause Cancer?}
$Subject{smoking cancer tobacco chewing Community Social lifestyle lifestyles
oral head neck cancers cancerous carcinoma neoplasm neoplasms Smokeless mouth
snuff nicotine smoke chew}
$Volume{Q-23, B-11}
$Log{}

Copyright (c) 1991-92,1993   Tribune Media Services, Inc.


Can Using Chewing Tobacco Cause Cancer?


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QUESTION:  I believe all the bad news about cigarette smoking.  So I stopped
smoking cigarettes and took up chewing tobacco so that I wouldn't get cancer.
Now there's more bad news about cancer using it.  Are these reports true too?

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ANSWER:  You bet they are!  The comeback in popularity of smokeless tobacco
products, snuff, and chewing tobacco has caused a dramatic rise in the number
of people with oral, head and neck cancer.  Smokeless tobacco contains a
variety of cancer-causing agents.  In the past, head and neck cancer was
considered a disease primarily for men in their 50's and older.  However,
epidemiologists are beginning to find a change in the pattern.  As the number
of young men, women, and even school age children who use smokeless tobacco
rises, the ages of patients suffering from cancer of the mouth, head and neck
gets higher.  In essence, what you and thousands of others have done by
switching from smoking tobacco to chewing it is to simply switch one possible
cancer site for another.
     Unfortunately, the advertising for smokeless tobacco products are aimed
at the young, and there is little knowledge of how dangerous it is.  Most
users assume, as you did, that chewing tobacco will help you avoid cancer, but
that couldn't be further from the truth.  In a study last year sponsored by
the National Institutes of Health, nonsmoking women who used snuff had
increased their risk of oral cancer fourfold.  Another study with men showed
the same increased risk.  Smokeless tobacco also causes a host of other health
problems.  The nicotine in chewing tobacco has similar adverse affects to that
in cigarettes.  Users have elevated blood nicotine levels and this can cause a
rise in blood pressure, heart rate and certain blood lipids.  Addiction is
another side effect of using smokeless tobacco.  Dependence and withdrawal
symptoms are the same from the chewable tobacco products as they are from
cigarettes.

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The material contained here is "FOR INFORMATION ONLY" and should not replace
the counsel and advice of your personal physician.  Promptly consulting your
doctor is the best path to a quick and successful resolution of any medical
problem.