Source: LeaderAdvisor.com “Through With Chew 2012” is designed to raise awareness about the variety of new smokeless tobacco products (SLT), dangerous especially to young people, not only because the amount of nicotine absorbed from these products is substantially higher than the amount absorbed from a cigarette, but also because of the aggressive marketing of these new products by the tobacco companies. Some of the latest tobacco industry innovations include tobacco dispensed in oral pouches, dissolvable tobacco (orbs) and the electronic cigarette. Aggressive marketing includes the fact that the five largest tobacco manufacturers spent $547.9 million on SLT advertising and promotions in 2008, up from the previous year by 34 percent (www.cdc.gov). A goal of the education campaign this year is to educate parents, teachers, administrators and coaches about these new products, that the packaging often resembles candy packaging, and that they are actually tobacco-containing products. Tobacco industry documents themselves indicate that SLT products are aggressively marketed toward youth, and that the industry has a strategy to progressively move youth from candy or fruit flavored products to more robust varieties for the nicotine dependent user (www.tobaccofreekids.org). Because so many people die per year due to tobacco-related illness, the tobacco companies need to find replacement users for their products. Tobacco use, no matter what form, remains the leading cause of death in this country annually. Just as in cigarettes, the leading cancer-causing agents in SLT are the tobacco-specific nitrosamines, which are formed during the growing, curing, fermenting and aging of tobacco leaves. [...]