Females: Chewing and Dipping Tobacco

While many women confine their nicotine hits to smoking, some do chew and dip. It’s more prevalent among women in the South and Southwest. However, government studies estimate that 8 percent of high school students are current smokeless tobacco users. And though smokeless tobacco (dips and spit tobacco products) is more common among males (13.6%), female high school students’ accounts for 2.2 percent of dip and spit tobacco users.

As for middle school, hold your hat. An estimated 3 percent of middle school students are current smokeless tobacco users. Folks, we are talking about very young children here. And again, although smokeless tobacco is more common among males (4%), 2 percent of little girls in middle school are dipping and spitting tobacco.

Many people think smokeless tobacco (also known as dip, chew, or spit tobacco and snuff) is safe. Smokeless tobacco can cause bleeding gums (gum disease) and sores in the mouth that never heal. Eventually it could cause cancer in your mouth, your throat, and even your stomach! Just like cigarettes, it is addictive because it has nicotine. It stains your teeth a yellowish-brown color. It gives you bad breath. It can make you dizzy, give you the hiccups, and even make you throw up. (Definitely NOT cool!)

If you are just starting or thinking of starting to use smokeless tobacco, I urge you to first take a look at some of the ingredients that are in smokeless tobacco – before you even think of putting any of it in your mouth.

Nicotine (addictive drug)
Polonium 210 (nuclear waste)
Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
Cancer-Causing Chemicals
Radioactive Elements

Pretty glamorous, right?

By the way, during 2005, the five largest tobacco manufacturers spent a new record of $250.79 million on smokeless tobacco advertising and promotion, versus the previous record of $236.68 million in 2001.

The two most popular spit tobacco brands among teens are both produced by the same high top tobacco product money maker. Ka-Ching!

I often wonder how those who produce harmful products or help sell and distribute them, reading about the cancers their products have inflicted on kids and others – how do they sleep at night? How do they look themselves in the mirror each morning? How do they go to church each Sunday or on the worshipping day of their faith?

I think I know now. Some years ago, a tobacco executive was faced with the information about how tobacco use by pregnant women affected their fetuses. How smoking caused low weight babies (and the subsequent health problems associated with low birth weights). His response? “Many mothers want low weight babies.”

Justify. Rationalize. Slip and slide responses. Feed on denial? More millions on fancy, well placed sales pitches? Or, as my grandmother would say, “they laugh all the way to the bank.”

Did You Know?
That a recent Danish medical study says that the more cigarettes pregnant females smoke while pregnant, particularly in the last months, the more they increase the risk of lowering their son’s sperm count later in life?

Not a good idea for anyone who would like to become a grandmother some day.