While the number of students smoking has decreased, more teens are using smokeless tobacco than adults these days.
The popular belief is that these products are less lethal than cigarettes. They do have fewer chemicals (3,000 instead of 4,000 in cigarettes), but those chemicals include the poisons formaldehyde, cadmium and arsenic. And there are 28 known carcinogens that can lead to gum disease, destruction of the bone sockets around your teeth, eventual tooth loss and even the loss of your jaw.
Why do teens want to take such risks? It’s the usual suspects – peer pressure, rebellion, economics, gang participation and the use of illegal drugs and alcohol. It doesn’t help that Big Tobacco has created new flavors of smokeless tobacco especially targeted to youth. Products like Camel SNUS come in cherry, wintergreen, apple, vanilla and grape flavors which obviously, appeal to younger consumers.
Less addictive? Dream on!
Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. When you try to cut back, withdrawal symptoms are both mental and physical. With smokeless tobacco, the pangs of withdrawal are the same as cigarettes. Within a few hours of stopping, you’ll start experiencing withdrawal symptoms and they will continue for two to three days.
Your child’s symptoms include feeling dizzy, depression, anxiety, irritability, trouble sleeping, lack of concentration, restlessness, headaches, fatigue and increased appetite.
The withdrawal symptoms are nothing compared to the health issues related to smokeless tobacco. These include mouth cancer, pancreatic cancer, leukoplakia (the white sores in your mouth that can lead to cancer), bone loss around the roots of your teeth that leads to tooth loss, stained teeth and halitosis.
Working with your child
As you know, children believe they are invincible. They think about the short term rather than the long term. So telling them that they may not have a jaw when they turn 50 will mean nothing to them.
Here are some good ways to make your case against using smokeless tobacco:
- Loss of a loved one. If your family has lost a family member to cancer, especially one that was beloved your child, you can use it as a life lesson when speaking with your own teen. Explain the horror of cancer, heart disease or emphysema and how the use of tobacco can lead to these horrific and often fatal diseases. Use the Internet to show photos of what your lungs, throat and heart look like. A little shock therapy never hurts.
- Be an example. It’s hard to tell a child not to use tobacco products when you’re a user. It doesn’t matter if you smoke instead of use smokeless products. Tobacco is tobacco and addiction to nicotine is an addiction. Kids are great at spotting hypocrisy. Don’t send mixed messages to your children. Talk the talk and walk the walk.
- Appeal to their love of stuff. This does not mean that you should bribe your children to not use tobacco products. Rather, you can show the high cost of this habit in terms of dollars and cents – dollars that can be used to buy something the teen really wants, whether it’s a Wii, a new computer, an iPhone or spring break in Cabo San Lucas.
- Be supportive. If your child is using tobacco products, support them in any effort to quit. It’s not easy to overcome an addiction. Be patient, be supportive, and if needed, seek the advice of your physician, a counselor or healthcare professional.