Like cigarettes, smokeless tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco), cause mouth cancer, gum disease, and heart disease. Yet many genuinely believe that chewing tobacco is harmless or less so than smoking. This is simply not true!
In 1986, the Surgeon General concluded that the use of smokeless tobacco "is not just a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes. It can cause cancer and a number of noncancerous conditions and can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence." Since 1991, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has officially recommended that the general public avoid and discontinue the use of all tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco. NCI also recognizes that nitrosamines, within tobacco products, are not safe at any level.
Chewing tobacco and baseball have a lengthy tight affiliation, rooted in the cultural belief among players and fans that baseball players chew tobacco and it is just area of the grand old game Backwoods cigars. This mystique is slowing changing with campaigns by ballplayers who've had or have observed friends with mouth cancer caused by chewing tobacco use.
Jeff Bagwell
Jeff Bagwell, retired first baseman with the Houston Astros and Joe Garagiola, a former baseball player and commentator, campaign against tobacco use among children and addicted adults. In 1993, when Bagwell was 25-years-old, his dentist discovered leukoplakia, a whitish pre-cancerous sore in his mouth where he continually placed chewing tobacco. About 5% of leukoplakias develop into cancer. Fortunately this did not occur to Jeff Bagwell due to the early detection by his dentist.
Rick Bender, The Man Without a Face
In 1988 Rick Bender, a 25 year old minor league baseball player developed a sizable sore on the side of his tongue that could not disappear for months. He started using 'spitting tobacco' when he was 12. After seeing his dentist and then the biopsy by a specialist, he was diagnosed with mouth cancer.
Surgeons successfully removed the cancerous cells from Bender's mouth and throat, going for a chunk of his tongue and the lymph nodes on the right side of his neck in the process. But removing the cancer also caused nerve damage that limited the use of his right arm, his throwing arm, which ended his baseball career. Later an infection occurred to the right side of Bender's jaw after radiation therapy. As a result, it deteriorated and doctors had to eliminate his right jaw.
As a result Rick Bender calls himself "the person with no face" and lectures on the dangers of 'spitting tobacco' throughout the nation. Bender visits schools and colleges around the world to dispel what he sees because the myths about chewing tobacco. He also addresses major and minor league baseball players annually at spring training.
Robert Leslie
Sonoma County has it own tragic baseball related, smokeless tobacco, and mouth cancer story. In June of 1998, Robert Leslie died at the young age of 31 from mouth cancer after years of chewing smokeless tobacco. He have been diagnosed four years prior and had bravely counseled youths against the use of smokeless tobacco next point. Leslie, who had been a celebrity pitcher at Rancho Cotate High School, looked to coaching following a brief attempt at playing professional baseball. He was a beloved coach at Casa Grande High School. He believed, rightly so, that the cancer had resulted from years of stuffing wads of smokeless tobacco between his gums and lower lip. He advocated against the use of chewing tobacco ahead of his death. He is missed.
History Of Tobacco Use and Baseball
Tobacco has a long relationship with baseball. From the sooner beginnings of baseball in the late 1800's, baseball players chewed tobacco to help keep their mouths moist in dusty dirt parks of that era. Drinking water was thought to make one feel too heavy. Players also used tobacco spit to soften leather gloves and to offer the spitball its wild gyrations.
Chewing tobacco's popularity among baseball players rose and fell with the changing times, usually trading places with cigarettes and cigars. The wrongful belief that chewing tobacco caused the spread of tuberculosis lead to its lowering of use during the conclusion of the nineteenth century. During the start of the twentieth century, it again rose to major use until after WWII when cigarettes became very popular in the U.S.
Through the 1950s, cigarettes reached their greatest prominence when teams actually had sponsored brands. As an example, Giant's fans (New York Giants that is) smoked only Chesterfield Cigarettes showing their team loyalty. In this era, baseball cards were often packaged with cigarettes. As a young child, I recall having my Dad buy Lucky Strikes so I could obtain the baseball cards.
In 1962, the Surgeon General's report highlighted the cause and effect between smoking and heart disease and smoking and cancer. Thinking that chewing tobacco was a better product, baseball players took up smokeless tobacco again. Ever since then, smokeless tobacco has dominated the sport of baseball, from the major leagues right down to the senior school level. And just like the targeted cigarette marketing of the 1950s, smokeless tobacco producers have promoted tobacco chewing through baseball players, even providing free samples in major and minor league clubhouses.
All tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, contains nicotine, that will be addictive. The total amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is 3 to 4 times the total amount delivered by a cigarette. Nicotine is absorbed more slowly from smokeless tobacco than from cigarettes, but more nicotine per dose is absorbed from smokeless tobacco than from cigarettes. Also, the nicotine stays in the bloodstream for an extended time.
Giving players free samples of chew tobacco, the smokeless tobacco manufacturers were getting players hooked to the addictive drug nicotine in a tobacco product which contains 28 cancer-causing substances. Even today, I saw a full-page magazine ad from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. with a free of charge coupon for Camel Snus. It had been advertised as "SPITFREE" and "SOLD COLD" in large bold print, while in small print a notice stated, "the product may cause gum disease and tooth loss."
Big League Chew, a gum aimed at children, is just a product that uses the deep connection between baseball and chewing tobacco. Introduced in 1980, Big League Chew includes shredded bubble gum, which resembles loose chewing tobacco. It's packaged in a metal foil pouch, just like the packaging of chewing tobacco, with the cartoon image of a football player on the outside. While candy cigarettes, another symbolic tobacco product aimed at children, fell out of favor years ago, Big League Chew remains well-liked by kids.
Luckily, the love affair between baseball and smokeless tobacco seems to be subsiding. In 1993, minor league baseball banned all usage of tobacco products among its teams. As result fewer major leaguers are now actually coming up from those ranks using tobacco products. Campaigns are making headway discouraging tobacco use and encouraging substitute habits like gum or munching on sunflower seeds. Remember former Giants manager Dusty Baker, setting a good example for young players by stopping tobacco use and chewing sunflower seeds in the dugout?
Still an estimated 7.6 million Americans age 12 and older (3.4 percent) used smokeless tobacco previously month, and smokeless tobacco use is most frequent among adults ages 18 to 25.
If you use tobacco, please stop. It is the better thing you certainly can do for the health. There are many tobacco cessation programs and nicotine replacement treatments Backwoods cigars. And ensure that you have regular cancer screening examinations together with your dentist. Early detection is critical for preventing mouth cancer.
George Malkemus has had a family Rohnert Park dentist office for over 25 years. When buying cosmetic or family dentist, research the dentist you're looking to own work on your teeth. Locate a dentist with the knowledge and staff to produce your smile look spectacular! Enjoy life and keep on smiling - Dr. George Malkemus.
