Ban on spit tobacco urged

Youth Action Alliance groups across the Northwest region have wrapped up their part of a provincial postcard campaign which culminated during “Through with Chew Week” (the last week of February).
The groups, called YAA for short, work to educate youths about the dangers of tobacco products and the manipulative nature of that industry.

They set out to collect signatures of residents across the region that were in favour of banning spit tobacco, also called dip, snuff, and chew.
YAA peer leaders from Kenora, Dryden, Sioux Lookout, Rainy River, Atikokan, Ignace, Fort Frances, and Red Lake held education and awareness events in their communities.
They also collected more than 400 postcards, which were combined with postcards from Thunder Bay YAA and presented to MPP Bill Mauro.
The youths asked Mauro for support and to bring their message to Queen’s Park.
Other YAA groups across the province held similar postcard campaigns.
Spit tobacco use among Northwestern Ontario youths is a problem. The most recent student drug use survey reports chew was used by 10 percent of the northwest high school-aged youth in the past year—a number that’s higher than the rest of the province.
Spit tobacco is just as, if not more, addictive than cigarettes as one tin contains as much nicotine as three-four packs of cigarettes. Spit tobacco also contains more than 3,000 chemicals, including 30 known carcinogens.
Although the tobacco industry claims they do not to target youths, their marketing techniques suggest otherwise.
They place youth-appealing tobacco ads in magazines that youths read, such as Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and Maxim.
New products continue to appear on the shelves that are less expensive, discrete, and easier for first-time users. As well, the industry has introduced candy flavours to their chew tobacco, including green apple, cherry, peach, vanilla, and mint.
A U.S. Smokeless Tobacco executive was quoted saying, “Cherry Skoal is for somebody who likes the taste of candy, if you know what I mean.”
Chewing tobacco can lead to halitosis (bad breath), yellow teeth, and leukoplakia, which is a condition in which thickened white patches form on your gums and which can be related to the formation of some mouth cancers.
It also is connected to heart disease and gum and tooth disease, such as receding gums, cavities, and chronic painful sores.
By educating youths and parents about the dangers of using spit tobacco, YAA peer leaders hope to decrease the number of their peers who take up the habit and get addicted to this form of tobacco.
“We really think we can make a difference here,” they say. “Now is the time for the government to step in and ban this tobacco industry product, before it becomes an epidemic like smoking.”