Baseball and Smokeless

[Mrobin52]

So I have been thinking about the health differences of Snus and American Dip/Snuff lately and I decided to do some research. As a type of "disclaimer", I am primarily a snus user and there is no doubt in my mind that it is the safest form of real tobacco use in the world.
In regards to smokeless as a larger category and the concerns we may have on its effects to our health, I did some searching.

On google I basically searched for "Major League baseball players who have been diagnosed with oral cancer(s)" and "American Sports Players who have been diagnosed with oral cancer(s)".

If you look into it and use some general common sense and historical knowledge, you know that currently 25 percent of MLB players use chew or moist snuff. Historically the numbers have been much higher. This isn't even taking into account the number of professional athletes across all leagues who use smokeless products.

In my searching the number of MLB players in the history of the league who have been diagnosed with oral cancers amount to a whopping 4 people!

...discuss.

[Crow]

Interesting statistics. It makes me wonder what the stats would be like if those 25% were using Swedish snus instead of dipping.

[Mrobin52]

Interesting statistics. It makes me wonder what the stats would be like if those 25% were using Swedish snus instead of dipping.

That would be really interesting. My guess is that it would be impossible to logically make any correlation whatsoever. In the case of american smokeless products as well though. Considering how many players have been in the game since the around the time of Babe Ruth, who had throat cancer, anything less than ten is almost statistically irrelevant imo.

[Thunder_Snus]

I remember reading that Tony Gwynn(sp?) used dip briefly during his career and thought that was the cause of his oral cancer many years later. I dont know if it was every determined. There are also other statistics to look at. I believe people of african background are twice as likely to develop oral cancer (whether it be smoking, dipping or just flat out being alive.) I'm sure there some statistics for all races about probability of certain kinds of cancers. I remember when warren sapp was on the raiders he put damn near an entire can of cope in his mouth and spit on a towel during an interview, it made me laugh.

[stubby2]

I've been reading Brad Rodu's blog for a long time and it has changed my view on american smokeless. It you look at the studies it is actually very hard to find a connection between oral cancer and dip or chew. If it's there it is such a small percentage it's hard to find when looking at large numbers of users.

The leading cause of oral cancer are smoking, alcohol, and HPV (from having oral sex with someone infected with HPV). For something like 25% of oral cancers there is no known cause.

The sugars and other junk in american dip tears up the gums a good deal more then swedish snus, but oral cancer is at worst a very small risk factor.

[squeezyjohn]

It's lovely to see all these debates about the probable factor smokeless tobacco plays in a tiny percentage of oral and throat cancers amongst users. And I'm sure that is so - similar to the probable factor many commonplace foodstuffs also contribute to many cancers.

The bottom line is ... if you smoke compulsively for your whole life - it is unlikely that you WON'T get some kind of ill-health from your habit and your chance of actually dying from a smoking related disease is very high indeed.

I know which one I prefer.