News and Events
Gilchrist SWAT Clubs take on Through With Chew Week!
February 24, 2024
On the third week of February this year our local Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) Club supported the annual tobacco free holiday Through with Chew Week. The goal of this nationwide campaign is to raise awareness about the dangers of smokeless tobacco to the public.
Smokeless tobacco may seem like a less threatening form of tobacco due to users not actually lighting and inhaling the product, but smokeless tobacco also leads to addiction and possible life changing affects in the future with constant use of these products. Smokeless tobacco today still contains a minimum of 28 cancer-causing chemicals in the product, that could lead to many things such as gum disease, tooth loss, and multiple oral cancers.
The Through with Chew Week campaign was launched in 1989 and was established by the American Academy of Otolaryngology (Ears, Nose, and Throat). The campaign was launched to warn the public of the dangers that came with the use of these products and their high addiction rates as well. Chewable nicotine products on average can produce a larger amount of nicotine introduced into the body than traditional cigarettes.
Gilchrist SWAT clubs supported this campaign by hanging up posters with facts about the dangers of these products and information about the chemicals put into them that many users may not be aware of. In Gilchrist County smokeless tobacco is a prevalent issue amongst the farmers and rural demographic in our county, but with the support of our local TFP, SWAT clubs, and tobacco free florida we have seen a drop in student smokeless tobacco use over the years. Gilchrist students are now happily under 10% for the entire student body in the county for students using these products!
