Spit tobacco: smokeless does not equal harmless
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News from the Lake County Health Department
Tony Gwynn will be remembered for his incredible baseball career, with 3,141 hits and a .338 batting average. What he won’t be remembered for is his use of smokeless tobacco throughout his baseball career, a two-decade habit that Gwynn himself believed gave him cancer of the salivary glands, which is what killed him at the young age of 54.
A 1999 survey found that close to one-third of rookies starting in the major leagues were already regular smokeless tobacco users, and that more than two-thirds had tried smokeless tobacco.
It was not until about 2011 that MLB implemented rules related to smokeless tobacco products. Worried about the message it was sending to young fans, MLB collaborated with the Major League Baseball Players Association to prohibit teams from providing tobacco to players. Players cannot have tobacco tins in their uniforms or do interviews while using chewing tobacco. Most dugouts in the major leagues have racks of chewing gum during batting practices and games. The league and the union have worked together to provide education, counseling and annual oral examinations for the players. Oral examinations are provided because the use of spit tobacco is associated with a variety of precancerous lesions in the oral cavity, including leukoplakia, erythroplasia, tobacco–associated keratosis and more. According to the American Cancer Society, three out of four people who use chewing tobacco have non-cancerous or precancerous lesions (sores) in their mouths.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smokeless tobacco contains 28 carcinogens and it is a known cause of oral cancer. The tobacco leaf itself contains various chemicals and carcinogens that can damage any tissue it comes in contact with. One of these, (S)-N’-nitrosonornicotine, or (S)-NNN, is a strong oral carcinogen.
In a study done with rats, two forms of this chemical were fed to them for 17 months. The doses were equivalent to a person who used half a tin of smokeless tobacco every day for 30 years. (S)-NNN caused a large numbers of oral and esophageal tumors in the rats. “There is a very specific oral carcinogen in smokeless tobacco and it is potent,” said Silvia Balbo, PhD, a cancer researcher from the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who conducted the research.
Gwynn was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. At that time, the 50 year-old faced chemotherapy and radiation to fight the “slow-moving but aggressive” cancer in his salivary gland. Gwynn was able to speak out against smokeless tobacco use in a taped segment of an informational video MLB is producing and plans to release this season. And, Gwynn isn’t the only former ballplayer to battle oral cancer. Babe Ruth, Brett Butler and Bill Tuttle were all diagnosed after years of chewing tobacco use. Butler became a passionate advocate against tobacco after he returned to the field following treatment, but he too died from oral cancer at age 69 in 1998.
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig expressed a desire to banish smokeless tobacco from the majors the same way MLB barred it from the minors starting in 1993. Unfortunately, the issue is subject to collective bargaining and the players association has declined, opting to protect personal freedoms and to emphasize education. Personal freedoms are important, but it seems the health of the players, and more importantly, the example set for young baseball players and fans would trump the personal freedom card. It is commendable that Mr. Gwynn took the time and effort to produce a video to educate others, especially new baseball players, about the very real dangers of spit tobacco.
Smokeless does not equal harmless.
