Chew, chaw, dip, plug, wad and snuff.
Whatever it’s called, smokeless tobacco is a public health dilemma. As lawmakers are placing increasing restrictions on cigarette smokers in bars, restaurants and workplaces, health officials are seeing a rising use in smokeless nicotine alternatives. More and more often, that alternative is smokeless tobacco.
“Chewing tobacco is something you can do in a smokeless environment,” said Herb Severson, a senior research specialist at Oregon Research Institute.
Smokeless tobacco use has climbed steadily among males from age 18 to 25. At least 16 percent of this age group uses a form of smokeless tobacco, Severson said, which is a number he called “pretty high.”
Alec Horley is one of those users. Horley’s brand of choice is Skoal. He’s been chewing tobacco for nearly three years and is now up to a tin a day.
“The first dip I had, I thought it was disgusting,” the University sophomore said. “Now, it’s almost delicious.”
Horley knows his math. He knows that because the list price of a tin of Skoal runs more than $5 on campus, tobacco can be a pretty expensive habit. He also hears the warnings about tobacco use and bad health.
Horley said a friend told him he may have a precancerous growth on his lower lip.
“It’s pretty bad, considering (the friend is) pre-med,” Horley said.
Even after countless health warnings, sin taxes to keep the price high and national advertising campaigns warning of its risks, Horley still goes back to chew every day. However, he won’t use it everywhere.
“I don’t use it in class — I consider myself a ladies’ man,” he said.
University health officials consider tobacco one of the largest health concerns on campus. They have begun a series of smoking cessation programs to convince smokers and chewers to give up tobacco.
“If students can get out of here in four years without smoking or chewing, the numbers say they probably will not start,” said Paula Staight, health education director at the University Health Center.
Smokeless tobacco comes in two basic forms: snuff and chewing tobacco. Snuff is the highly ground or shredded form of tobacco, most commonly sold in a small round can. Users place a “dip,” “wad” or “chew” of snuff between their bottom teeth and lower lip. Snuff users can often be identified by the tobacco ring in their back pocket.
Chewing tobacco is known as the more coarse and leafy cut of tobacco. Users place a “chew” or a “wad” in their cheek pouch. Severson said baseball players are a common group that uses chewing tobacco.
Severson said the high nicotine content is a lure for chewing tobacco. Tobacco companies offer a wide range of smokeless products, from the sweeter-tasting Skoal Bandits, which have very little nicotine, to the heavy-hitting Copenhagen, which contains as much nicotine as three packs of Marlboros.
University sophomore Jeff Struthers never saw the lure of chew.
Struthers chewed Skoal for just less than three months, bought at most a can a week during that period and dropped it cold turkey.
“It was something I tried out. I thought it was gross, and I stopped using it,” he said. “It was no problem quitting.”
Major tobacco companies are beginning an attempt to paint smokeless tobacco as a more healthy alternative to cigarettes. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, formerly United States Tobacco, formally petitioned the Federal Trade Commission in early February for permission to create advertisements that say its products could be a safer alternative to smoking.
Officials such as Severson have been trying to demystify that notion.
“Smokeless tobacco is not harmless,” he said. “It is not a safe alternative.”