Chewing tobacco

Chewing tobacco is a type of smokeless tobacco product that is placed between the cheek and lower gum to draw out its flavor. It consists of coarsely chopped aged tobacco that is flavored and often sweetened; it is not ground fine like dipping tobacco. Unwanted juices are spat while chewing.

Chewing tobacco is a source of nicotine and therefore highly addictive.[1] Quitting chewing tobacco use is as challenging as smoking cessation.

Using chewing tobacco can cause various harmful effects such as dental disease, oral cancer, oesophagus cancer, and pancreas cancer, coronary heart disease, as well as negative reproductive effects including stillbirth, premature birth and low birth weight.[2][3] Chewing tobacco poses a lower health risk than traditional combusted products.[4] However, it is not a healthy alternative to cigarette smoking.[5] The level of risk varies between different types of products and producing regions.[4][6] There is no safe level of chewing tobacco use.[5]

Types

Chewing tobacco may be left as loose leaves or compressed into a small rectangular "plug". Nearly all modern chewing tobaccos are produced by leaf curing, cutting, fermentation, and processing, which may include sweetening and flavoring. Historically, many American chewing tobacco brands popular during the American Civil War era were made with cigar clippings.

Health effects

Even though it is less dangerous than smoking, chewing tobacco is addictive, represents a major health risk, has no safe level of use, and is not a safe substitute for smoking.[12][13][14][15] A 2024 U.S. Surgeon General fact sheet on tobacco-related health disparities notes that, despite declines in tobacco use, disparities persist across population groups, including higher tobacco use among people living in rural areas and in the South and Midwest.[16][17] Globally it contributes to 650,000 deaths each year, with a significant proportion of these in Southeast Asia.[18]

Chewing tobacco and baseball

When the rules of baseball were first written in 1845, the carcinogenic potential of chewing tobacco was unknown. At that time, it was commonly used by players and coaches alike.[34] Smokeless tobacco use became rampant by players by the early 1900s. The use of chewing tobacco in baseball steadily increased until the mid-20th century, when cigarettes became popular and took the place of some players' smokeless tobacco habit.

Joe Garagiola, who quit, warned about chewing tobacco: "'I tell these guys, 'You may not like what I say, but with lung cancer you die of lung cancer, ... 'With oral cancer, you die one piece at a time. They operate on your neck, they operate on your jaw, they operate on your throat.'[35]"

Bill Tuttle was a Major League player who made a big name for himself both through baseball and his anti-chewing tobacco efforts. Tuttle was an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics, and Minnesota Twins. He was an avid tobacco chewer; even his baseball cards pictured him with a bulge in his cheek from the tobacco. Nearly 40 years after he began using smokeless tobacco, Tuttle developed a tumor in his mouth so severe, it protruded through his skin. A few years before he died, Tuttle had many of his teeth, his jawbone, his gums, and his right cheekbone removed. He also had his taste buds removed.

Brands

Notable chewing tobacco brands include:

• America's Best Chew (formerly Red Man)
• Beech-Nut
• Copenhagen
• Grizzly
• Kodiak
• Levi Garrett
• Mail Pouch
• Oliver Twist
• Skoal

History

Chewing is one of the oldest methods of consuming tobacco. Indigenous peoples of the Americas in both North and South America chewed the leaves of the plant long before the arrival of Europeans.

The Southern United States was distinctive for their production of tobacco, which earned premium prices globally. Most farmers grew some for their own use, or traded with neighbors who grew it. Commercial sales became important in the late 19th century, as major tobacco companies arose in the South, becoming one of the largest employers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Durham, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia. Southerners dominated the tobacco industry in the United States. So much so that a concern as large as the Helme Tobacco Company, headquartered in New Jersey, was headed by former Confederate officer George Washington Helme. In 1938, R. J. Reynolds marketed 84 brands of chewing tobacco, 12 brands of smoking tobacco, and the top-selling Camel brand of cigarettes. Reynolds sold large quantities of chewing tobacco, even though that market peaked around 1910.[48]

A historian of the American South in the late 1860s reported on typical usage in the region where it was grown, paying close attention to class and gender:[49]

See also

• Betel chewing
• Big League Chew
• Gutka
• Herbal smokeless tobacco
• Naswar
• Smokeless tobacco
• Snuff (tobacco)