Smokeless tobacco products are sometimes touted as a way to help reduce the health problems associated with conventional tobacco use, but the majority of teenagers who use them also smoke cigarettes, according to a new study.
The study, published in the September edition of the journal Pediatrics and online this week, found that 5.6 percent of students in grades 6 through 12 use a form of smokeless tobacco.
“Smokeless tobacco use was associated with lower perception of harm from all tobacco products and pro-tobacco social influences, indicating the need to change youth perceptions about the use of all tobacco products and to engage pediatricians in tobacco use prevention and cessation interventions,” the study concluded.
Smokeless tobacco contains three to four times the amount of nicotine delivered by a cigarette and thus poses an even greater risk of addiction and dependence, according to the American Lung Association. It contains 28 cancer-causing agents or known causes of human cancer and increases the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity and pancreas.
Previous research with teens has shown a decline in smoking, but a greater use of smokeless tobacco, increasingly promoted by companies hurt by public smoking bans. The conventional types include dry snuff, moist snuff, plug and twist, and loose-leaf chewing tobacco. But there are newer types – dissolvable products and the Swedish-style snus, which is placed under the tongue — that don’t require spitting and can be used more discreetly.
The study in Pediatrics found that of the 5.6 percent of youth who used chewing tobacco, 72 percent smoked as well. Nearly all used tobacco, snuff or dip and almost 2 percent used snus. Less than 0.5 percent used dissolvable tobacco.
The study was based on a nation health survey of 18,866 students from grades 6 through 12. Smokeless tobacco use was highest, 10.8 percent, for those aged 18 and 19. About 2 percent of children aged 9 through 11 were users.