Tobacco Use And Baseball

 Like cigarettes, smokeless tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco), cause mouth cancer, gum disease, and heart disease. Yet many think that chewing tobacco is harmless or less so than smoking. This isn't true!

In 1986, the Surgeon General figured the utilization of smokeless tobacco "is not a safe replacement for smoking cigarettes. It could cause cancer and numerous noncancerous conditions and can result in nicotine addiction and dependence." Since 1991, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has officially recommended that the general public avoid and discontinue the utilization of all tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco. NCI also recognizes that nitrosamines, present in tobacco products, are not safe at any level.

Chewing tobacco and baseball have a long tight affiliation, rooted in the cultural belief among players and fans that baseball players chew tobacco and it is just the main grand old game. This mystique is slowing changing with campaigns by ballplayers who've had or have observed friends with mouth cancer due to 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,pepe tabak 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 happen to Jeff Bagwell due to the early detection by his dentist.

Rick Bender, The Man With out a Face
In 1988 Rick Bender, a 25 year old minor league baseball player developed a large sore privately of his tongue that will not disappear completely for months. He began using'spitting tobacco'when he was 12. After seeing his dentist and a biopsy with a specialist, he was identified as having 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 utilization of his right arm, his throwing arm, which ended his baseball career. Later contamination occurred to the right side of Bender's jaw after radiation therapy. Consequently, it deteriorated and doctors had to remove his right jaw.

Consequently Rick Bender calls himself "the man with no face" and lectures on the dangers of'spitting tobacco'through the entire nation. Bender visits schools and colleges around the world to dispel what he sees since the myths about chewing tobacco. He also addresses major and minor league baseball players each year 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 utilization of smokeless tobacco after that point. Leslie, who was a star pitcher at Rancho Cotate High School, turned 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 utilization of chewing tobacco just before his death. He's missed.

History Of Tobacco Use and Baseball
Tobacco includes a long relationship with baseball. From the earlier beginnings of baseball in the late 1800's, baseball players chewed tobacco to keep their mouths moist in dusty dirt parks of the era. Normal water was thought to make one feel too heavy. Players also used tobacco spit to soften leather gloves and to provide the spitball its wild gyrations.

Chewing tobacco's popularity among baseball players rose and fell with the occasions, frequently trading places with cigarettes and cigars. The wrongful belief that chewing tobacco caused the spread of tuberculosis result in its reduction in 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 popular in the U.S.

During the 1950s, cigarettes reached their greatest prominence when teams actually had sponsored brands. For instance, Giant's fans (New York Giants that is) smoked only Chesterfield Cigarettes to exhibit their team loyalty. During this era, baseball cards were often packaged with cigarettes. As a kid, I recall having my Dad buy Lucky Strikes so I possibly could obtain the baseball cards.

In 1962, the Surgeon General's report highlighted the cause and effect between smoking and heart problems and smoking and cancer. Convinced that chewing tobacco was a better product, baseball players used smokeless tobacco again. Ever since then, smokeless tobacco has dominated the sport of baseball, from the major leagues right down to the high school level. And similar to 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 quantity of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is 3 to 4 times the quantity delivered with 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.

By providing players free types of chew tobacco, the smokeless tobacco manufacturers were getting players hooked to the addictive drug nicotine in a tobacco product that contains 28 cancer-causing substances. Even today, I saw a full-page magazine ad from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. with a totally free coupon for Camel Snus. It had been advertised as "SPITFREE" and "SOLD COLD" in large bold print, during small print a notice stated, "this system may cause gum disease and tooth loss."

Big League Chew, a nicotine gum directed at children, is just a product that uses the deep connection between baseball and chewing tobacco. Introduced in 1980, Big League Chew contains shredded bubble gum, which resembles loose chewing tobacco. It is packaged in an aluminum foil pouch, similar to the packaging of chewing tobacco, with the cartoon image of a football player on the outside. While candy cigarettes, another symbolic tobacco product directed at children, fell out of favor years back, Big League Chew remains favored by kids.

Luckily, the love affair between baseball and smokeless tobacco appears to be subsiding. In 1993, minor league baseball banned all usage of tobacco products among its teams. As result fewer major leaguers are actually coming up from those ranks using tobacco products. Campaigns are making headway discouraging tobacco use and encouraging substitute habits like nicotine gum or munching on sunflower seeds. Remember former Giants manager Dusty Baker, setting an 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) have used smokeless tobacco in the past month, and smokeless tobacco use is most frequent among teenagers ages 18 to 25.

If you use tobacco, please stop. It is the better thing you can do for the health. There are lots of tobacco cessation programs and nicotine replacement treatments. And be sure to have regular cancer screening examinations with your dentist. Early detection is critical for preventing mouth cancer.