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Man's Mission: Snuff Out Dipping

Photo courtesy of alaska.amedd.army.mil/

Tobacco companies have responded to bans on indoor smoking with increased marketing emphasis on smokeless products.

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By MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2008

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Rick Bender

Plenty of people wish they could prevent their younger self from making a big mistake.

Rick Bender's one of them, but he's accepted the fact he can't go back in time. Instead, he's using evidence of his mistakes to save others on the path he once took.

Hundreds of Plant City High students recently heard Bender describe his diagnosis with an aggressive form of oral cancer at the age of 26 - thanks solely to his passion for and his addiction to smokeless tobacco. Nearly every single student there acknowledged that they either knew someone who chewed or dipped, or admitted they did so themselves.

"I hate the word smokeless. Doesn't it sound nice, neat and harmless?" Bender asked students. "I can tell you it's not."

A festering sore on his tongue tipped Bender off to cancer back in 1989, but it wasn't enough to prevent four surgeries, the removal of a third of his tongue and half of his jaw, and nerve damage that partially destroyed his arm motion.

At the time of diagnosis, Bender was an aspiring minor league baseball player, husband and father of two young children.

Now he's called the man without a face.

Bender has outlived doctor's predictions by more than a decade, something that inspires him to advocate for awareness full-time. He travels the country as a public speaker and talks to groups such as those he saw in his recent Tampa Bay area visit, including Tampa Electric workers and school groups.

His visit to Plant City was no accident. An estimated 45 percent of the students at the high school use smokeless tobacco, says Gary Stein, tobacco program coordinator at the Hillsborough County Health Department. By comparison, an estimated 14 percent of male high school students and 2 percent of female high school students nationwide have used smokeless tobacco, a 2005 survey of the Centers for Disease Control reported.

Plant City students also are among the biggest participants in the county's smoking violators class for students law enforcement catches smoking or dipping. The class, however, may not carry the same impact as an hour with Bender.

Plant City student Jose Lopez, 16, says he's been dipping snuff for three years, and he's already seen signs of gum recession and tooth decay in his mouth. Though Lopez's great uncle suffered from oral cancer, it hadn't occurred to him he might be a candidate for the aggressive and potentially fatal disease. He can use up to a can of snuff a day.

That was until he saw Bender and heard his story.

"I want to quit after seeing this," Lopez says.

Justin Tillis, a 16-year-old sophomore who no longer dips, was visibly uncomfortable looking at Bender's slides of cancerous mouths. "It's scary. I had a sore last year like that," he says.

Bender himself worries that smokeless tobacco use is on the rise, in part because of the increase in clean indoor air laws. The American Cancer Society says tobacco companies responded to bans on indoor smoking with increased marketing emphasis on smokeless products.

The two dominant forms of smokeless tobacco are still chewing tobacco and snuff. But a new product introduced in the United States in the past year may be more dangerous, Stein says. Snus (pronounced snoose) is a Swedish concept that packs tobacco in tea bag-like pouches, creating a cleaner spitting situation for users.

Companies such as Marlboro and Camel both have introduced domestic snus products. The R.J. Reynolds-owned Camel line is packaged in mint-like tins and comes in various flavors, such as "frost" and "spice." A Philip Morris USA spokesman told USA Today that creating a Marlboro brand of snus was part of their overall "growth strategy."

The marketing of these products is said to be geared toward adults, but anti-tobacco advocates scoff at the idea. They say companies try to appeal to teens, who think tobacco is cool. Bender began dipping at 12 for that exact reason. He believed the ads that suggested he "take a pinch instead of a puff."

Falling for that pitch turned out to be devastating, he says.

"It turns out it was the biggest lie I was ever told."

Want to share your health and fitness idea? Contact Mary Shedden at (813) 259-7365.

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