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Addiction to Smokeless Tobacco in America

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Message Charles Foerster

  Originally published at Global Research in Canada. 10/27/2012

According to the Federal Trade Commission report of 2012, smokeless tobacco sales in the United States alone, amounted to about 2.8 billion dollars for the year of 2008. The sales are robust and increasing due in some part to the decline of cigarette smoking. Then too, smokeless tobacco companies spend millions upon millions to attract new users.

The obvious target is the youth of America. The tobacco industry is very much aware of their vulnerability so they focus on large attendance venues where the impressionable youth gather. So, sporting events, hunting shows, race-tracks and such have become high-stake promotional grounds, killing fields on an extended-release schedule, if you please.

This is also where you will find the older smokeless tobacco users, almost like those who wear military medals, showing off their badges of macho-ism, the tell-tale worn, circular pattern on the back pocket of their jeans and the ubiquitous spit-cup.

The most horrible aspect of the smokeless tobacco scene is when a young teenaged boy becomes addicted. By the time the dipping act has progressed to the health-impact stage the boy has become a man, a man who has provided of many years of cash flow for the corporate tobacco companies who, of course, deny any connection of their products and the debilitating consequences.

Once addicted, several things are set into motion; all is well for a while, sometimes for years. The sensations of addiction are compelling, the sub-conscious pleads for satiation and the sweet moist brown pinch does its job, but alas, the fix is short-lived. Repetitive action displaces rational thought. Then one day you notice a red spot on the inside of your cheek. The following is a short story of what has happened:

  

Alkaloid nicotine equals addiction.

Tobacco leaf to be made into snuff can be smoke-cured for 3 days to 10 weeks.

Wood smoke is an excellent source of methanol thus,

Snuff can be heavily saturated with methanol.

When such snuff is dipped, the methanol component is deposited in the oral cavity.

Methanol is then free to combine with the ADH (alcohol-dehydrogenase) enzyme.

When ADH combines with methanol the by-product is formaldehyde.

Formaldehyde immediately attacks the first healthy cells wherever it makes contact.

If snuff is inhaled formaldehyde weakens the cells in the nasal passages.

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Charles Foerster is a former Naval Aviator and professional pilot.
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