Published: April 16, 2008 01:44 am      

Effort under way to reduce number of smokeless-tobacco users

FAIRMONT — Adult men in the state of West Virginia have the second highest rate of using smokeless-tobacco products, at 16.6 percent, behind only Wyoming.

Add in high school males and, according to some statistics, West Virginia then becomes the state with the highest usage rate, according to Bruce Adkins, director of the state Division of Tobacco Prevention (www.wvdtp.org).

“All smokeless tobacco are highly addictive and can lead to lifelong nicotine addiction and dependence,” Adkins said. “And adolescents who first use smokeless tobacco are more likely to become cigarette smokers.”

In an effort to reduce the number of smokeless-tobacco users, the Division of Tobacco Prevention has 10 $5,000 mini-grants to distribute among the state’s 10 regions as part of the “Save Face-Stop Spit Tobacco” campaign.

“It’s a hereditary disease,” said Bev Keener, the regional tobacco prevention coalition coordinator for a six-county area that includes Marion, Monongalia, Harrison, Preston, Taylor and Doddridge counties. “It’s parents and grandparents passing it on as a rite of passage.”

Keener is in charge of distributing the mini-grants to groups that would be interested in setting up an informational booth at an event that would target users of smokeless tobacco products, such as at a fair or a sporting event.

Those who receive the grant must present information at two community events in two different counties within a year.

Keener does not know how many grants are available all together, “But I am trying to get at least three applications covering all six of my counties,” she said.

In addition to teens learning about smokeless tobacco from their families, peer pressure also plays a large part in the decision to begin to chew tobacco or rub snuff, Keener said.

Kathy Danberry, the cessation program manager for the Division of Tobacco Prevention, said she also works with sports teams such as minor league baseball organizations the Princeton Devil Rays and the West Virginia Power in Charleston.

“They have our ‘Save Face — Stop Spit Tobacco” on their walls, so people see those every time the Power plays a game,” Danberry said.

Even though some might consider spit tobacco a safer alternative to smoking, using such products can lead to diseases that include oral cancer. Users also have a higher incidence of cancers of the esophagus, larynx, stomach, pancreas, prostate and tongue, Adkins said.

The latest surveys indicate that 220 West Virginians are diagnosed with oral cancer each year, he said, and rates among men younger than 40 are increasing.

In addition to the grants, Keener also can provide users with “Quit Spit Kits” that include information as well as a product that can be mixed in with tobacco, gradually increasing the amount, in an effort to reduce and then stop chewing or rubbing snuff.

One man who used the product successfully told Keener that he wanted to quit before summer, his worst time of the year.

“He would use tobacco when mowing grass and was used to having something, so he wanted to get off of it before then,” she said.

Keener can be contacted at the Marion County Department of Health at (304) 366-3360.

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.