Smokeless Tobacco Research Paper

Once considered a harmless pleasure, smokeless tobacco came to the fore front of health news at the turn of the millennium due to increasing evidence that it is just as dangerous as cigarette smoking. In fact, most medical professionals now agree that smokeless tobacco--also known as "chaw" or "chew"--is equally addictive and carcinogenic, and have come to consider the substance as contributing to the U.S. tobacco epidemic. Despite the medical community's efforts to warn people beginning in the mid-1980s, the use of smokeless tobacco was on the rise as of the U.S. Surgeon General's report in 1997, which pinpointed young males as the largest growth area. Adolescent use of moist snuff, a powdered form of smokeless tobacco, has also skyrocketed,
It has an important part in regulating mood and pleasure, both serving as a trigger for the synthesis of adrenaline and noradrenaline and acting as a neurotransmitter. When nicotine goes to the brain, it produces a rush of dopamine into the bloodstream, causing the user to become more relaxed and calm. In this respect, nicotine's chemical action is very similar to such other drugs as cocaine, amphetamines ,and morphine. In effect, each time a smokeless tobacco user puts a pinch of tobacco in his or her mouth or inhales some powder, he or she gets a powerfully reinforcing and rewarding chemical message from the brain that, over a short period of time, will cause physical and emotional dependence on tobacco. However, because the body quickly becomes used to nicotine through a process called "tolerance," users experience a gradual rise in the amount of tobacco they need to get the same physiological
As of 1996, there were 30,000 new cases of oral cancer diagnosed in the United States, one-third of which were fatal. Some studies estimate that using smokeless tobacco raises the risk of oral cancer, which includes cancers of the throat, by as much as 50 percent. Smokeless tobacco use has also been strongly linked to cancers of the pancreas, nasal cavities, esophagus, pharynx (passageway for food and air), intestines, stomach, larynx ("voice box"), and urinary tract. Other no cancer health problems associated with smokeless tobacco include peptic ulcers, danger to fetuses, and damage of the salivary