According to the American Heart Association (AHA) smokeless tobacco products are not really safe alternatives to smoking and can actually lead to certain types of cancers. Snuff or chewing tobacco are equally addictive and can lead to oral cancer. It also makes the user more vulnerable to resuming smoking. AHA also announced that no tobacco product is safe to consume. Recent study on the smoking behavior of people in the U.S. found that smoking rates did not drop amongst people who used smokeless tobacco products in order to give up smoking. In fact they not only went back to smoking but continued to use both. AHA estimates that about 7 percent of adults in the U.S. are addicted to smokeless tobacco products. One alarming fact is that middle schoolers and high schoolers are also increasingly getting addicted to these products.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smokeless tobacco products are known to contain 28 known carcinogens, which increase your risk of both oral and pancreatic cancer. They also lead to gum diseases and tooth decay and abnormal sperm count. For people trying to kick the smoking habit it is better to try replacement products like gum and nicotine patches, which have no cardiovascular risk or risk of cancer.

Addiction