For young people whose new year's resolution is to quit using snuff or chewing tobacco, Arkansas researcher Craig Stotts, RN, DrPH., wants to help them kick the habit. His program, called The PATCH Project, (Program Against Teen CHewing), pay youths to attend classes for six weeks, to wear a nicotine patch and to submit urine samples to prove they have quit.
The National Cancer Institute awarded the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) $1.5 million to fund Stotts' three-year program. Stotts, a professor and associate dean in the UAMS College of Nursing, found that about a quarter of all male teenagers in the state use snuff. He is on a campaign to stem what he describes as an epidemic of spit tobacco use in the United States. He hopes the PATCH Project's finding will be spread throughout the country.
Stotts and his staff are recruiting 300 teenagers for this initial study. "Adolescents don't understand that they can get hooked on something that can control their lives," Stotts said. "They think they can quit when the first bad symptoms appear."
People who use spit (AKA smokeless) tobacco at least three times a day are addicted, researchers say. "Rural, white, Southern teenage males are the most likely to take up the habit," Stotts said. From 1970 to 1985, the use of spit tobacco grew 10-fold among males ages 17-19, in large part because it was viewed as a less dangerous alternative to cigarette smoking, he said. But spit tobacco carries serious health risks, too, he said, including oral cancer.
As an incentive to complete the program, teens are paid $5 to attend each of six classes. They are paid $25 to submit a urine specimen one year after classes end. Researchers will test the samples to determine whether the participants stayed off tobacco for a year.
A tobacco user must vanquish two types of addiction-physical and psychological-to kick the habit, Stotts said. Psychological addiction is the user's dependence on the smell, taste and feel of tobacco. The nicotine patch allows users to defer the physical symptoms of nicotine withdrawal-such as anxiety, irritability and sleeplessness-for about six weeks while they focus on psychological withdrawal.
Stotts said, "If someone asked teenagers to put embalming fluid in their mouths, would they? What about chemicals commonly found in car batteries? If such a request seems unthinkable, think again. The snuff-that appeals to young people-contains these toxins, which have been added to give it a good taste and make it stick together."
These toxins give snuff its nickname of "witch's brew" and can cause gum damage and oral cancer, Stotts explained. Every day children-from ages 6 to 18 years old-buy and use spit tobacco products, such as snuff, and "park" the highly processed product, which includes those chemicals and other poisons in their mouths, said Stotts. # # # Media contact: Bonnie Brandsgaard 501-686-8013
RSS