http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.actio ... 4978157622Fixed. Not sure what happened to that link.
Here is likewise the text of the article, but it won't copy the pictures.
"Snuff. Dip. Chew. Snus. It is known by many names, but it's all the same.
Millions of Americans are users of smokeless tobacco products. With the American culture shying away from cigarettes due to public smoking bans, companies like R.J. Reynolds and American Tobacco have embraced the demographic shift to market an increasing number of smokeless tobacco alternatives.
The most popular brands are Skoal, Copenhagen, Grizzly and Kodiak, each with its own distinctive appeal and price strategy. Skoal, for example, is distinct in that it markets its product in several different flavors such as peach, cherry and apple to go along with the standard flavors of straight and wintergreen.
While it is indisputable that smokeless tobacco is less harmful than cigarettes for lung cancer and emphysema, it should not be treated as a safe alternative for smoking.
Many studies have linked the use of smokeless tobacco to increased risks for oral cancer and pancreatic cancer compared to the non-tobacco user. The contents of nicotine and other carcinogens in a typical pinch of dip is actually of a greater concentration than one cigarette.
And, snuff usage is highly addictive.
As the stories circulate about jaws being removed, tongues being cut out and people dying from years of using that little tin of tobacco, more and more people are looking for the way out. A new website,
www.killthecan.org, is to the rescue.
Killthecan.org considers itself a resource of education, posting facts and links about tobacco usage, testimonies by people that have been affected by dip and pictures of what long-term usage can do to the human body.
The site also considers itself a brotherhood. If a person registers and makes it their first 100 days without any tobacco whatsoever, including nicotine gum or patches, you get into the 'Hall of Fame', and you purchase a commemorative coin or knife to celebrate that.
You can also join the forumboard, a community of current and former dip abusers that want to stop and have set up a support system to help each other do just that. Newbies will be denigrated by the old timers. Everyone has to sign a roll thread every day signifying another day clean. Most importantly, the new quitter will find they are not alone, as people that used to dip two cans a day for 30 years have killed the can and given their word that killer tobacco won't enter their mouths.
If you are a dip, snuff, snus, or smokeless tobacco user and are looking for reasons and way to quit for good, check out the brotherhood at
www.killthecan.org. Email me at
gstep77507@aol.com if you check it out or have any questions."
