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10/ accessHealthnews.net Summer 2013 Teens and Tobacco Oak Grove Coach Says 'Win Early and Win Often' By Hollis Schnieders Although the use of cigarettes has recently declined among adolescents, use of smokeless tobacco is on the rise among high school students. Tobacco companies now offer many different brands and flavors to attract today's youth. Smokeless tobacco education and prevention is becoming more important with increases in adolescent users. According to the FDA, the younger the user, the more likely he or she will become addicted to nicotine and the According to the Centers for more heavily addicted he or she Disease Control and Prevention, will become. 20 percent of high school students currently use "Prevention is the ultimate goal smokeless tobacco products. in the process to get students Chewing tobacco and snuff are to avoid use and addiction of the two products most smokeless tobacco," Girdner commonly used by high school said. "Win early and win often Courtesy of CNBCNews.net students and athletes. should be our motto to reduce Adolescent smokeless tobacco and eliminate youth tobacco Pictured above is Rick Bender, a Kentucky man users are more likely to become use." whose lower face is adult cigarette smokers, deformed due to oral cancer, according to the Federal Drug Health care providers and Administration (FDA). Of parents play an important role caused by chewing tobacco. smokeless tobacco users, 85.8 in educating youth about health He shares his stories with percent of users also smoke risks and prevention techniques. area teens in hopes that they will choose not to use cigarettes at some time in their lives. "It takes many positive tobacco products. Bender influences and individuals in a and health organizations Teens who use smokeless young person's life to educate, worry that the industry term tobacco" is tobacco are often unaware of the inform and model positive "smokeless health risks. "I think it is critical tobacco free behavior," Girdner misleading and are urging a new term: "spit tobacco." as a community to work together said. to prevent the use of smokeless tobacco," said Jerry Girdner, activities director at Oak Grove High School. The addiction that Lafayette County comes from tobacco use is gripping and very difficult to Live Healthy Live Well break. "A lot of people still think 'take a pinch instead of a puff,'" Rick Bender told a group of high school students, quoting a 1970s advertisement that had once influenced him. "Tobacco is tobacco. … The bottom line, gang: No matter how old you are, the day you start is the day you put your body at risk," Bender said. Bender started using chewing tobacco at age 12, influenced by friends who smoked cigarettes, advertising and a love of the chew-happy baseball culture. By 26, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of oral cancer and underwent four major surgeries, losing half his jaw, a third of his tongue and partial use of his right arm. Teens mistakenly perceive chewing tobacco as having less harmful effects than cigarettes because they aren't inhaling. On the contrary, using smokeless tobacco has a wide variety of harmful health effects. According to the National Cancer Institute, more nicotine per dose is absorbed from smokeless tobacco than from cigarettes. Smokeless tobacco contains 28 known cancer causing agents (carcinogens). It can also cause addiction, gingivitis, Leukoplakia and heart disease. Several factors motivate teens to dismiss smokeless tobacco's harmful effects. One is the media's portrayal as a social norm. Second are professional athletes who are vivid models of this behavior. Third, and probably the most profound, is peer influence. Teens are more likely to use smokeless tobacco if their friends do. The more friends that use, the more acceptable it becomes. If you live in Odessa, you are invited to participate in a Walkability Survey. Whether for exercise, for pleasure or to reach a specific destination, we'd like to learn more about Odessa's walking habits. Our goal is to help create walkable communities that are safe and convenient for everyone. Thanks in advance for your participation. Please complete the inserted survey or take the survey online at LiveHealthyLiveWell.org.

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