MARIA HERNE | The Republican Herald

While some may view the use of chewing tobacco by youngsters as a harmless "rite of passage," Dr. Barry J. Boran calls it as it is.

"It's a potentially deadly addiction," said Boran, who recently spoke about the dangers of smokeless tobacco during a community program at Pottsville Hospital and Warne Clinic.

"Tobacco is the main cause of cancer mortality in the United States that contributes to 30 percent of all cancer deaths and smokeless tobacco is even worse. It has a 50 percent higher concentration of carcinogens than cigarettes," said Boran, a Minersville dentist

The use of smokeless tobacco - it's also known as chewing tobacco, spit tobacco, pinch, chew, chaw, dip and plug - is a common, even acceptable habit, among Schuylkill County's youth, Boran said.

In a 2005 youth risk behavior survey that included the 12 county school districts, nearly 15 percent of all high school seniors said they had tried smokeless tobacco, some as early as sixth grade.

"People know the risks, but they don't want to hear it," Boran said. "If you care about your child and want them to live a long, healthy and productive life, you should never let them use tobacco in any form."

Ninety percent of patients with oral cancer used cigarettes or snuff, he said.

According to the American Cancer Society, of the 12 to 14 million smokeless tobacco users in the United States, a third are under the age of 21 and more than half developed the habit before age 13. Of the nearly 30,000 Americans who are diagnosed with mouth and throat cancers annually, nearly 8,000 die from the disease.

Smokeless tobacco comes in two forms: snuff and chewing tobacco. Snuff is a fine-grain tobacco that often comes in tea bag-like pouches that users "pinch" or "dip" between their lower lip and gum. Chewing tobacco comes in shredded, twisted, or "bricked" tobacco leaves that users put between their cheek and gum.

These products are left in the mouth for up to 30 minutes at a time, while the user sucks on the tobacco juices, spitting often to get rid of the saliva that builds up. This sucking and chewing process allows nicotine, an addictive drug, to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the tissues in the mouth.

Mary O'Brien, a substance abuse prevention specialist and tobacco cessation counselor at the Good Samaritan Center for Counseling Services, said young people who start using smokeless tobacco products don't realize how addictive nicotine is.

"It's very much a gateway drug," she said. "Once the tobacco companies get you hooked as a young person, they have a customer for life."

Chewing tobacco is marketed to lure young customers, O'Brien added, noting that many smokeless products contain cherry, apple, vanilla, berry and mint flavors.

"It comes in these sweet flavors, packaged in little tins, like candy," O'Brien said.

Kids are also influenced by professional athletes, especially baseball players who spit while they play, she said.

A 2003 survey by the American Cancer Society found that one in three Major League baseball players used spit tobacco, primarily moist snuff.

"Kids see professional athletes in advertisements and they see them on TV using it during a game," O'Brien said. "It's considered acceptable."

Angela Morgan, director of community development with Clinical Outcomes Group, Pottsville, said parents need to understand the harmful health effects and addictive nature of smokeless tobacco products and should not allow their children to use them.

"Although it's smokeless, it's just as harmful as cigarettes," Morgan said. "It's also illegal to sell it to anyone under 18, because they're tobacco products."

Through the efforts of the Schuylkill County Tobacco-Free Youth Coalition, which the Clinical Outcomes Group sponsors, several county youth baseball and softball leagues have enacted bans on smokeless tobacco and other tobacco products at their sports complexes, including Frackville Little League, Frackville Girls Softball, Pine Grove Little League, Pine Grove Area Junior Girls Softball Association and Port Carbon Little League, Morgan said.