Nicotine is a very addictive substance. It does not need outside voices coaxing its users to continue their abuse of the product with the allure that it has little to no consequences.
Yet, there are.
In 1994, that narrative began to fall apart. When a large FedEx box was delivered to the University of California containing thousands of leaked documents from Brown Williamson (the nation's third largest tobacco company), the truth was put forth. The documents stated that yes, the tobacco companies knew nicotine was addictive. They also knew that their product increased the chance of getting cancer. In fact, the American Medical Association said that the companies "dissemble, distort, and deceive, despite the fact that the industry's own research is consistent with the scientific community's conclusion that continued use of their product will endanger the lives and health of the public." The AMA had never and has never issued an opinion in this manner to date.
In the wake of Tony Gwynn's passing from salivary gland cancer, a new debate has opened on the dangers of smokeless tobacco. Smokeless tobacco is not harmless, and there are still organizations out there spinning a story that it is. The organizations are funded primarily through the tobacco industry, yet separate themselves from the industry through smoke and mirrors. As society moves away from this horrible drug, it must disregard voices like these that exist only to advertise and console its users back to sleep in times of debate.
While reading various articles about Tony Gwynn, I realized that a column that appeared on CNN.com had been syndicated to other media publications as well. The article, entitled A Habit All too Common In Baseball by Jacque Wilson, appeared also on such sites as myarklamiss.com, kcra.com, and many others. The article speaks very bluntly about Gwynn's use, how nearly one-third of all MLB rookies were regular chewers (1999), and what MLB's response is to Gwynn's passing.
Unfortunately, it also contains the following passage:
There is no scientifically established link between smokeless tobacco and salivary gland cancer, according to the American Council on Science and Health. Doctors don't know what causes salivary gland cancer, but the Mayo Clinic lists old age and radiation as known risk factors.
"The kind of chewing tobacco Gwynn used does have some risk of oral cancer, but not parotid (salivary) gland cancer, which is the kind that took his life at such a young age," said Dr. Gilbert Ross, the council's medical director.
Dr. Gilbert Ross is the executive director and medical director of the American Council on Science and Health. It is a very prestigious position that Ross obtained after losing his medical license in a Medicaid fraud scheme. After spending all of 1996 in a federal penitentiary, Ross was released and began working for ACSH in 1998. He was promoted to executive director the following year. (SOURCE)
The American Council on Science and Health was founded in 1978 Elizabeth Whelan. Whelan started the organization because she "had become concerned that many important public policies related to health and the environment did not have a sound scientific basis" (according to its website). After being denounced as "manufacturer's front group" in the 1990s, it no longer reports its donors. Companies such as Dow Chemical, Shell Oil, and others were reported donors in the 1990s. Providing nearly one-third of the organization's revenue, it can be speculated that they donated to the organization in order to receive "industry friendly" scientific studies (which the organization has been happy to publish) (SOURCE). Although it claims that 90 percent of its revenue comes from individual donors, Mother Jones reported that leaked documents showed that nearly 60% of its 2012 donations (second half) came from corporations or private foundations (including tobacco companies Altria, Reynolds, and Phillips).
With such an open dialogue igniting on the issue of smokeless tobacco, voices and sources such as Dr. Gilbert Ross and the American Council on Science and Health need to be shown for what they are. They are mouth pieces for an industry that is determined to assuage fears about its poisonous products, and to calm the storm that is rising against them.
In the midst of yesterday's news cycle, the ACSH stated (definitively) that Gwynn's death was NOT due to his use of smokeless tobacco, and they back up their arguments with a study done by none other than KTC fiend Brad Rodu. Dr. Rodu is a big proponent of harm reduction (i.e. switch to smokeless tobacco instead of smoking). He is funded by unrestricted grants from tobacco manufacturers. It is no surprise that he came up with this conclusion. Supposedly, there are no studies that link paratid gland cancer to chewing tobacco. Yet, a quick Google search says that "chewing tobacco use increases the risk factor" by multiple organizations.
Tony Gwynn stated that the tumor was "right where I kept my chew". He stated that sores had formed throughout his life there, and he sought treatment multiple times for the beginning stages of his disease. Unfortunately, he kept up with his nasty habit until it was too late. It may be too late for him, but it is not too late for the millions of users out there still using smokeless tobacco. Voices such as the ACSH, Gilbert Ross, and Brad Rodu need not be part of the conversation as they are biased voices that intend to muddy the waters.
As a quitter of smokeless tobacco, I can speak for the evils of the product. It is horrible to quit, and it is not harmless. Chewing tobacco has almost always been part of the game, but it doesn't have to be.
