Cancer risk factors: Smokeless tobacco

Aside from smoking tobacco, it can be consumed by chewing, dipping, spitting, or snuffing it. Some people assume that switching from smokeless tobacco reduces their risk of falling ill due to tobacco consumption. The truth is, there is no safe kind of tobacco.

The two main types of smokeless tobacco are chewing tobacco and snuff, Dr. Paolo Boffetta shares. Available as loose leaves, plugs (or bricks), or as twists of rope, chewing tobacco is placed in between one’s cheek and lower lip, usually near the back of the mouth. Either kept in its place or chewed, one’s saliva can be swallowed or spit. Snuff is powdered or thinly cut tobacco that can be bought in various flavors and scents.

Establishing that there is no safe form of tobacco, studies have found in smokeless tobacco at least 28 chemicals that cause cancer. Tobacco-specific nitrosamines－those that are formed during the growing, curing, fermenting, and aging of tobacco－are the most harmful chemicals in smokeless tobacco. While the level of these nitrosamines differs from product to product, experts discovered that nitrosamine level is rightly linked to cancer risk.

According to Dr. Paolo Boffetta, biomarkers of exposure have been formed to quantify exposure as a structure for a carcinogenesis type in humans. Animal carcinogenicity studies firmly validate clinical results. Smokeless tobacco users may have reduced cancer risk than other smokers. However, their risk is greater than that of non-tobacco consumers.

Dr. Paolo Boffetta is a professor and an associate director at Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. He is an epidemiologist and a researcher on cancer and other chronic diseases. For similar reads, visit this blog.

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