chewing tobacco

Smokeless tobacco ingrained in baseball, despite bans and Gwynn’s death

Source: www.latimes.comAuthor: Gary Klein Utility player Mark DeRosa loads a wad of smokeless tobacco while playing for the San Francisco Giants before a game against the Dodgers on March 31, 2011. The use of smokeless tobacco is prevalent in the major leagues. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images) Rick Vanderhook played for Cal State Fullerton's 1984 College World Series championship team and was a Titans assistant when they won two more. So he remembers the days when cans and pouches of smokeless tobacco were omnipresent in the uniform pockets of the participants. Not anymore. The NCAA banned tobacco use on the field in the early 1990s. "It's probably cut back, I'll say, almost 90% compared to what it was 25 years ago," said Vanderhook, who in his fourth season as head coach has guided the Titans back to Omaha, where they will open against defending national champion Vanderbilt on Sunday at 5 p.m. Smokeless tobacco remains ingrained in baseball culture, however, including the college and high school levels where it is banned. "It sounds bad, but it's part of the game," said Fullerton pitcher Thomas Eshelman, echoing nearly every coach and player interviewed for this article. Minor league players can be fined for having tobacco products in their locker or partaking on the field. Major leaguers are prohibited from using tobacco during televised interviews and player appearances, and they cannot carry tobacco products in their uniforms. But they are otherwise not prohibited from using it on the field. Before he died [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-06-15T12:22:26-07:00June, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Legal loopholes allow big tobacco companies to target young children with new products

Source: http://www.contracostatimes.comAuthor: Sen. Mark Leno & Tony Thurmond With smoking now widely known as the nation's No. 1 preventable killer, Big Tobacco is targeting our kids with new products that give an illusion of more safety but carry the age-old motive to hook kids on tobacco at a young age. Preventing children from picking up nicotine addiction is the best way to keep them free of tobacco-related disease for life. That's why we've each introduced bills that seek to curb youth usage of smokeless (chewing) tobacco and e-cigarettes. Last year, many were shocked when Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who played for the San Diego Padres, died from cancer of the salivary glands that was related to decades of smokeless tobacco usage. Former World Series hero Curt Schilling, who helped propel the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox to championships, has blamed his bout with mouth cancer on chewing tobacco. Use of chewing tobacco by professional athletes sends the wrong message to our kids, but nonetheless a powerful one. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have found that the use of smokeless tobacco by players has a powerful "role model effect" on youths, particularly young males. It's no wonder then that while overall rates of smoking have declined thanks to several decades of intense educational programs, smokeless tobacco rates have remained stubbornly high among youth. One in every 6 high school boys report regular usage. Assembly Bill 768 bans smokeless tobacco at all ballparks in California with organized baseball, [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-04-13T12:22:32-07:00April, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Curt Schilling: Letter to my younger self

Source: www.theplayerstribune.com Author: Curt Schilling Dear 16-year-old Curt, Tomorrow at lunch, a kid is going to dare you to take a dip of Copenhagen. If you say yes, like I did, you’ll be addicted for the rest of your life. Well, the rest of your life up to the point when you are diagnosed with cancer. I get what you’re thinking. You’re 16 — you’re invincible, just like all your buddies. If you were to jump ahead 33 years, you couldn’t write a better dream than the one your life is going to be. With one exception. If you say yes tomorrow, you will become addicted to chewing tobacco and you will get mouth cancer. I’m going to tell you a little story that I think may help guide you. (I saw this on a TV series called The West Wing — great show, you’re going to love it one day — and it very much rings true). There was a man — we’ll call him Joe. Joe lived in the same house his entire life. One day, a huge storm came. He turned on the radio: Prepare for torrential rains and deadly flash flooding. Everyone should evacuate to safety immediately. See, Joe was a devout Christian. He had the Lord in his life for as long as he could remember. Church every Sunday, prayed twice a day. “My faith in God is resolute. He will save me,” Joe thought. The rain kept coming down. About two hours later, water [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-04-12T07:18:05-07:00April, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Lawmaker proposes ‘smokeless tobacco’ ban at all baseball venues

Source: www.santacruzsentinel.com Author: David E. Early, Bay Area News Group For decades, Major League Baseball’s goofy love affair with chewing tobacco was so passionate that the gooey stuff was stocked by teams in clubhouses as surely as jocks and socks. Nearly all ball players had golf-ball-sized cheek bumps, and part of the show was spitting streams of saliva in dugouts from coast to coast. But now the end may be near. If a bill formally introduced in the state Capitol Tuesday becomes law, the use of “smokeless tobacco” will be banned in every baseball venue in the state — from San Jose sandlots to San Francisco’s AT&T Park. They would join minor league parks, which already outlaw it. “This is all about helping young people. We want to stop youth from being exposed to cancer,” said freshman Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, author of the bill. “Kids emulate ball players. If they see them use it, they will use it as well.” The legislation was touted Tuesday at news conferences in Sacramento and San Francisco, where leaders of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids took the podium. Their program, called “Knock Tobacco Out of the Park,” included commentary about oral cancer taking down beloved Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, a retired San Diego Padre, in 2014 at age 54. And now retired Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is battling cancer that he openly blames on his longtime chewing habit. Opio Dupree, Thurmond’s chief of staff, said Tuesday that the penalties for violating [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-02-25T08:49:21-07:00February, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Curt Schilling Reveals his Diagnosis of Oral Cancer and Believes Chewing Tobacco was the Cause

Source: boston.comAuthor: Steve Silva Curt Schilling, the former Red Sox pitcher and ESPN analyst, announced today during the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon that he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma -- which is cancer in the mouth -- in February. "This all came about from a dog bite," Schilling said. "I got bitten by a dog and I had some damage to my finger and I went to see a doctor, and the day that I went to see the doctor, I was driving and I went to rub my neck and I felt a lump on the left side of my neck. And I knew immediately it wasn't normal. So there happened to be an ENT [Ear, Nose, and Throat] right next door to the hand doctor, and I thought what the heck, let me just stop in and see and so I waited in the office and went in there and they did the biopsy, and two days later, they diagnosed me with squamous cell carcinoma. "You know what the amazing thing was? And I was just dumbfounded by it. You've just been told you have cancer and you walk out into the public and the world's still going on and it was really a challenge to wrap my head around that. My second thought was, 'Yeah, really, you think I can handle this too?' So after a couple of tests, I got sent over to Brigham and Women's and Dana-Farber and that's where I met Dr. Haddad [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-08-20T11:31:16-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Salivary gland cancers rare, but sometimes deadly

Source: articles.baltimoresun.com Author: Andrea K. Walker Professional baseball great Tony Gwynn Sr., also known as Mr. Padre, died last month of salivary gland cancer, which he believed was caused by years of using smokeless chewing tobacco. The cancer is a rare form that begins in any of the salivary glands in the mouth, neck or throat. Two adults in 100,000 are diagnosed with salivary gland cancer each year. The chances of survival drop if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Dr. Patrick K. Ha, with Johns Hopkins Head and Neck Surgery at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, says new types of treatments and therapies are in the works to treat the disease. What is salivary gland cancer and how common is it? Salivary gland cancers are a diverse group of rare malignancies that can involve any of the major salivary glands (the parotid, submandibular and sublingual) or minor salivary glands, which are found within the lip, palate, tongue base, nasal cavity or sinuses. There are numerous different cancers that may arise from the salivary glands, and these may behave differently based on their cell of origin. What causes it, and who is more likely to get it? Little is known about the causes of salivary gland cancers. Unlike the more common head and neck cancers, which have a clear association with smoking, drinking or even the human papillomavirus (HPV), salivary gland cancers do not have such strong associations. There may be a link between significant radiation exposure (i.e., treatment [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-07-12T08:55:49-07:00July, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Gwynn’s death sparks dip debate

Source: www.trentonian.com Author: Nick Peruffo The death of San Diego Padres icon Tony Gwynn due to oral cancer Monday resonated across the baseball world — including the Trenton Thunder clubhouse. In addition to being a person tragedy for the Gwynn family, the news also put a renewed focus on the use of chewing tobacco in baseball. Officially, tobacco in any form has been banned in the minor leagues since 1993. If caught with chewing tobacco on the field, players face a $300 fine, while managers are docked $1,000. Away from the field, however, it is clear that some players continue to dip. “There are so many guys that do it,” said catcher Tyson Blaser, who does not use chewing tobacco. “It’s very common in the major leagues, and even though obviously in the minor leagues you are not supposed to do it, some people don’t adhere to that. To see an icon like (Gwynn) lose his battle with cancer because of a habit a lot of people do, I assume it’d be eye opening to some people.” Gwynn, who was just 54, blamed his cancer on dipping tobacco. Despite that, manager Tony Franklin conceded that while the coaching staff does its best to dissuade players from using, what they do on their own time is ultimately their own decision. “We encourage them not to do it, but they are adults with choices to make,” Franklin said. “The choices they make could be very beneficial and save their lives, so we [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-06-20T06:39:19-07:00June, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Hall of Famer and ‘Mr. Padre’ Tony Gwynn dies at 54 from Oral Cancer

Source: abcnews.go.comAuthor: Bernie Wilson Tony Gwynn could handle a bat like few other major leaguers, whether it was driving the ball through the "5.5 hole" between third base and shortstop or hitting a home run off the facade in Yankee Stadium in the World Series. He was a craftsman at the plate, whose sweet left-handed swing made him one of baseball's greatest hitters. Gwynn loved San Diego. San Diego loved "Mr. Padre" right back. Gwynn, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest athletes in San Diego's history, died Monday of oral cancer, a disease he attributed to years of chewing tobacco. He was 54. "Our city is a little darker today without him but immeasurably better because of him," Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in a statement. In a rarity in pro sports, Gwynn played his whole career with the Padres, choosing to stay in the city where he was a two-sport star in college, rather than leaving for bigger paychecks elsewhere. His terrific hand-eye coordination made him one of the game's greatest pure hitters. He had 3,141 hits — 18th on the all-time list — a career .338 average and won eight batting titles to tie Honus Wagner's NL record. He struck out only 434 times in 9,288 career at-bats. He played in San Diego's only two World Series — batting a combined .371 — and was a 15-time All-Star. He had a memorable home run in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series off fellow San Diegan David [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-06-17T09:46:25-07:00June, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

CDC reveals no drop in smokeless tobacco use among U.S. workers

Source: philly.comAuthor: Margaret Steele, HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, June 5, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Cigarette smoking continues to decline among Americans who work, but use of smokeless tobacco -- a known cause of cancer -- has held steady since 2005, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. Certain types of jobs -- construction and mining, especially -- are hotbeds of smokeless tobacco use, according to a study conducted by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Looking at tobacco use over five years, the researchers found a decline in cigarette smoking among working adults -- from about 22 percent in 2005 to 19 percent in 2010. But use of smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco and snuff inched up slightly -- from 2.7 percent in 2005 to 3 percent in 2010."These findings can help health professionals direct assistance to working men and women to stop using smokeless tobacco, a known cause of oral, esophageal and pancreatic cancer," the researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The CDC called on employers to try to snuff out all forms of tobacco use. New smokeless tobacco products such as snus (finely ground moist snuff) and candy-flavored dissolvable tobacco, combined with increased marketing, might explain smokeless tobacco's steady use, the CDC authors said. However, snus and some other products weren't included in the questionnaire so it's possible smokeless tobacco use is underestimated, study author Dr. Jacek Mazurek, of the division of respiratory disease studies, and colleagues noted. Chewing tobacco and snuff aren't safe, research has shown. [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-06-06T10:47:15-07:00June, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

New study shows a rise in smokeless tobacco sales, especially among youth

Source: UMass Medical School Communications (http://www.umassmed.edu/news)Author: Sandra Gray The number of smokeless tobacco products sold in Massachusetts is soaring, as are the levels of nicotine packed into many of them, according to a new analysis from UMass Medical School and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). “Nationwide, cigarette smoking control has been very successful and we have experienced a steady decline, but that success is being offset by the increased use of smokeless tobacco products, especially by youth,” said UMMS statistical scientist Wenjun Li, PhD. Dr. Li, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, co-authored the paper with colleagues from the DPH. Published in the journal Tobacco Control, the study examines ten years of product data (from 2003 to 2012) that Massachusetts law requires tobacco manufacturers provide to the DPH. Notable findings include a nearly 30 percent increase in the number of moist snuff products and a nearly sixfold increase in the number of snus products sold in Massachusetts; these increases correlate with rising use among high school students. Nationwide, more than one in eight males in the 12th grade uses smokeless tobacco. In Massachusetts, use among high school students has more than doubled since 2001. A wide variety of smokeless tobacco products on the market include newer inventions like dissolvable lozenges, snus and moist snuff, many of them flavored and colorfully packaged to appeal to youth, along with more traditional forms used by adults including chewing tobacco and dry snuff. Researchers were particularly interested in unionized, or [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-03-24T14:56:03-07:00March, 2014|Oral Cancer News|