Tobacco use has become one of the biggest health concerns around the world, including in the US. Although smoking is the more widely known method of tobacco use, smokeless tobacco is popular as much if not more among people, especially teenagers.
Smokeless tobacco is commonly known as chew tobacco, dip tobacco, plug, chaw, etc. this form of tobacco is either chewed or snorted and that is why they are called smokeless tobacco and are different from cigarettes. This type of tobacco comes in mainly two forms, chew tobacco and snuff. Snuff is fine powdered tobacco that is either snorted or chewed. Chew tobacco is dried tobacco leaves that are either loose or made into a compact block and chewed.
Statistics of smokeless tobacco use by students
High school students
- 7.9% of all high school students
- 10.3% of white high school students
- 4.7% of Hispanic high school students
- 1.2% of African-American high school students
- 13.4% of male high school students
- 2.3% of female high school students
Middle school students
- 2.6% of middle school students
- 2.8% of white middle school students
- 3.4% of Hispanic middle school students
- 1.7% of African-American middle school students
- 2.0% of Asian middle school students
- 4.1% of male middle school students
- 1.2% of female middle school students
Source: Original Source
Health effects of smokeless tobacco use
Smokeless tobacco is wrongly mistaken to be better than smoking. But the fact is that even though it cuts down the chemicals present in cigarette smoke, it is still very harmful and highly addictive due to presence of nicotine. The amount of nicotine that goes into the body is a few times higher than in smoking.
- Addiction to nicotine
- Various oral cancers
- Cancers of the pancreas, pharynx or throat, larynx or voice box and esophagus or food pipe
- Receding gums, diseases gums, may even cause the teeth to eventually fall out
- Heart diseases, stroke
