1. Smokeless Tobacco

2. What is it?
Smokeless tobacco is tobacco that is sniffed through the nose, held in the mouth or chewed.

3. Spit, Chew, Dip, Chewing Tobacco, Chaw….
There are 2 types:
Chewing Tobacco is shredded or twisted tobacco leaves that people pinch out of the can and place between their gum and cheek.
Snuff is fine grained tobacco that comes in a pouch like a tea bag that users put between their lip and gum.

4. I thought it was better than cigarettes
NO! It contains 28 carcinogens as well as nicotine. It’s not any safer than smoking!
It can deliver the carcinogens and nicotine to the body 2 or 3 times more than a cigarette can.
People who chew 8-10 plugs a day take in the same amount of nicotine as someone who smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day!

5. What does it do to the body?
Smokeless tobacco causes cancers of the lip, tongue, cheeks, gums, mouth and pancreas.
It causes white, painful sores throughout the mouth and throat
Cracked and bleeding lips
Receding gum line, which can cause your teeth to fall out.

6. Statistics About 70% of chewing tobacco users have mouth sores.
Approximately 30,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with mouth and throat cancers.
8,000 of these people die each year.
Half who have these cancers don’t live more than 5 more years after their diagnosis.

7. The Great Bambino
Baseball players are notorious for chewing tobacco, HOWEVER…
Babe Ruth died at age 52 from cancer of the throat. He regularly chewed tobacco.
Bill Tuttle also chewed tobacco, but a tumor in the side of his cheek cost him to lose his jawbone, part of his cheek bone, his teeth and gums, and eventually his life.

8. Pictures

9. 26-year-old Gruen Von Behrens, an oral cancer survivor who's had 28 disfiguring surgeries to save his life. One radical surgery removed half his neck muscles and lymph nodes, and half of his tongue. Von Behrens first tried spit tobacco at age 13 to "fit in." By age 17, he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma.

12. Resources to help you or a friend quit
-information on local tobacco coordinators, quitting tools, etc.