Primer: Smokeless Tobacco Many people think using smokeless
tobacco is safer than smoking. Just because there's no smoke,
doesn't mean it's safe, the American Cancer Society (ACS) says.
A person who uses eight to 10 dips or chews a day receives the
same amount of nicotine as a heavy smoker who smokes 30 to 40
cigarettes a day. Spit tobacco is placed inside the mouth, which
gives the user a continuous high from the nicotine. It's made
with a mixture of tobacco, nicotine, sweeteners, abrasives,
salts and chemicals. It contains more than 3,000 chemicals,
including 28 known carcinogens. The most harmful carcinogens in
smokeless tobacco are substances called tobacco-specific
nitrosamines (TSNAs), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) says.
TSNAs are formed during the growing, curing, fermenting, and
aging of tobacco. The amount of these substances in smokeless
tobacco can be very high. These are some of the other harmful
chemicals in smokeless tobacco: Polonium 210 (a rare, naturally
occurring element; some polonium