Ever Know Anyone Who Got Oral Cancer from Smokeless Tobacco?

[john_pifer]

When I was a kid in Memphis, my dentist had posters in his office of guys with holes clear through their cheeks from smokeless tobacco use (dip, chew). Lost teeth, etc.

But I've never actually known or heard of anyone to whom this has happened.

I don't use tobacco. Only tried dip a couple of times in my young, dumb, late-teen and early 20s years. Never was a real attraction for me.

But a lot of guys at work use it. Seems to be pretty popular in my field (aircraft maintenance). There's a policy against the use of tobacco of any kind in the facility, but it's one of those things that's not enforced (at least, with smokeless). It's pretty nasty. The guys who use it all have horrible breath, and carry around pop bottles to spit in. We use disposable cardboard parts cups that we use to keep small hardware in, and ive reached into one without looking, expecting to find screws, and put my hand into dip spit.

Anybody here had serious health problems from it? Holes in your mouth? Or known anyone who has?

 

[paulri]

Serious health problems alright. A guy just a year or two ahead of me in high school got a horrible case of cancer in his jaw from chewing incessantly, in his early 20s I think. It took away sight in one eye (that, or the surgery to remove it). Trying to google a link to a story on it, I guess it was never printed in papers. Happened in late 80s IIRC.

 

[skyactiv]

Smokeless tobacco is another way to be addicted to nicotine.
There's been a few baseball players that have died from mouth cancer over the years.

Old chew TV spots.

 

[JustN89]

Nope, don't know of anyone and I know quite a few people who dip.

 

[BHopkins]

Oh, yea.

It's been a long time ago. I worked in a rocket manufacturing facility, and long before state and Federal smoking regulations came into play, there was no smoking in any of the production areas of our plant. so some of the guys would use chew. One guy I used to work with used Red Man quite a bit. He was a real big man, loved the outdoors and fancied himself as a mountain man. Then he was diagnosed with mouth cancer. It was pretty severe and it really scared him really bad. He had to go in for several surgeries. I transferred to another building before he went through it all. But I do recall it changed his life.

When I lived in Kentucky there was a guy I worked with that lost teeth because of oral cancer.

So, yea. It's a real thing.

 

[CT8]

I tried some about 11 years ago. The farrier gave me a picn so I put it between my cheeks and gums and within 5 minutes I was on the ground in a fetal position sick as a dog while the farrier shod 3 horses.

 

[Pew]

In the Marines it was guaranteed that at least half of the Corps dipped. While I never heard of anybody getting oral cancer because of it, a few did get nasty infections.

 

[bsmithwins]

Do a google image search for ‘ smokeless tobacco mouth cancer'

Might not want to be eating when you look at the results.

BSW

 

[slug_bug]

Wife was an ENT specialist in the Army. Saw dozens of cases of mouth cancer caused by chew. Holes in face type of stuff. Sad...

 

[buck91]

Guy I used to work with on the fire department, yup.

 

[hemitruck]

Saw many cases over the years in my career.

 

[blupupher]

Seen quite a few at the hospital.

 

[Inspecktor]

I had a friend whose dad lost most of his lower front teeth to disease caused by dipping. My grandfather died of stomach cancer, had been dipping for decades. He was a farmer who was in excellent health otherwise.

 

[nwjones18]

I dipped for 10 years had a spot in my mouth that was sore for a few days and it scared me pretty bad. Had it looked at and it was nothing thankfully. After that I put in a dip while my wife and I were riding somewhere and she gave me a look that cut me to the core.. I quit cold turkey and that was 5+ years ago. Not being addicted to anything is great

 

[RazorsEdge]

One of my uncles had oral cancer from chewing tobacco and died as well.

One of the most disgusting habits a person could have IMO.

 

[Donald]

People get some oral cancer from having HPV.

I went to college in WV and they have a Forest Festival every fall and one of the contests is a tobacco spitting contest.

Many people in my fraternity did chewing tobacco. They would pass around a cup to spit in during fraternity meetings.

 

[JOD]

someone I knew in high school died of oral cancer. Had been dipping since the 6th grade. One of the cool kids...

When my dad heard this, he stopped chewing the next day (he used chew to stop smoking). Rare, but it happens.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by john_pifer
But a lot of guys at work use it. Seems to be pretty popular in my field (aircraft maintenance). There's a policy against the use of tobacco of any kind in the facility, but it's one of those things that's not enforced (at least, with smokeless). It's pretty nasty. The guys who use it all have horrible breath, and carry around pop bottles to spit in.


Scroll down to the "Gnarly Supergrass" section ... look familiar?, lol

https://askentomologists.com/2015/05/11/can-bugs-spit-puke-or-do-both/

 

[double vanos]

Guy at work dipped skoal, no dip cup, he "gutted" it. When the juice was totally gone he swallowed what was left. Claimed it was "roughage". He's still alive but has had some bone transplanted where the dip used to go. Still dipping.

Another co-worker dipped Copenhagen Hagen, taking huge dips at a time, I'm talking 1/3 of a can each dip. He bought it by the sleeve. He didn't gut it. He died from what started out as a large tumor on a kidney. They whacked out the kidney , started chemo and after a half year he told his oncologist to eff himself, the chemo was more than he could take. He died last fall, his body riddled with cancer. He told me he took his first dip while driving a tractor on a road crew - told me had to get off that tractor, the dip threw him for a loop. After being sickened by that first dip how could he wind up addicted to it?

I'll never figure it out.

 

[rubberchicken]

I recently had a friend die from throat cancer. He never smoked, but dipped for about 10 years before being diagnosed the first time with cancer. He quit, they operated and he seemed to be in remission for about 5 years, but it came back and he died about 4-6 months later. My sister is a doctor and practices in an area that has a tradition of dipping: she sees plenty of cases of early stage oral cancer that she has to refer to oncologists and surgeons. Lung cancer due to smoking, diabetes and various issues due to meth addiction are other frequent problems.