While oral cancer has been shown to occur several times more frequently among smokeless tobacco users than among nonusers, it may occur, in some sites in the mouth, as much as 50 times more frequently among long-term moist snuff users. Sales of moist snuff have risen steadily in recent years, while sales of other forms of smokeless tobacco have fluctuated or have declined. Sales of moist snuff climbed to 41 million pounds in 1989, a 14 percent increase over the 35.9 million pounds sold in 1986. The U.S. Distribution Journal reported that the volume of moist snuff sales has risen 70 percent in the last ten years. Our most recent surveys of smokeless tobacco use found that, in 1988 nationally, 25.8 percent of males between the ages of 12 through 17 had tried some form of smokeless tobacco and 6.6 percent had used smokeless tobacco in the past month.
Newer evidence suggests the problem is becoming much more serious.
For example, according to a recent survey by the Illinois Department of Public Health, nearly half of all high school-age males across the state have tried smokeless tobacco in some form. About 16 percent of Illinois high school juniors are regular users, and in rural communities, the figure rises to 28 percent. The culture of smokeless tobacco use in the United States has to a large extent centered around sports, particularly baseball. When impressionable youngsters see their heros openly using smokeless tobacco on the playing field, it creates a powerful incentive to try it. These young people also begin to correlate smokeless tobacco use with athletic excellence.