SPIT TOBACCO FACTS

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75 percent of oral cancers are from tobacco

n      Oral cancer about 2-4% of all cancers diagnosed annually in the US, but survival rates one of lowest of all major cancers.

n      Only 50% of people diagnosed with oral cancer are alive five years after the diagnosis.

n      70% of people who chew tobacco have pre-cancerous sores in their mouths that can be seen with the naked eye (white patches called leukoplakia as seen in late stages in photograph).

 

 In Weld County about 11% of the population uses. Spit tobacco, like other forms of tobacco, is a poison. It contains at least 24 cancer-causing chemicals including  benzopyrene, formaldehyde, polonium 210,arsenic, lead, cyanide, nitrosamines and more. The main toxin people seek when using is nicotine. An average dip has about 5 times the nicotine that a cigarette has. Tobacco (nicotine) addiction is a brain disease. The tobacco industry promotes tobacco use as a choice, but it is truly an addiction to a poisonous substance. The industry targets our youth because 90% of people who chew or smoke started before or around the age of 18 when the brain (the pre-frontal cortex) is not fully formed yet to make good or long-sighted executive desicions. In fact, this part of the brain is not fully formed until about the age of 25.