Smokeless Tobacco Use among Native American Adolescents

To the Editor: The use of smokeless tobacco products, including snuff and chewing tobacco, poses health risks. Besides leukoplakia and cancers of the oral cavity, smokeless tobacco use is linked with gingival recession, hypertension, and nicotine dependence.^{1 2 3 4} Perhaps most disturbing are the rising rates of smokeless tobacco use among young people.^{5 6 7} In our research with Native American adolescents, we, too, have observed the growing popularity of snuff and chewing tobacco. We report data from a study of smokeless tobacco use among Native American adolescents (135 females and 119 males; mean age, 13.8 years) randomly selected from three reservations and one…, No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.