This week is Through With Chew Week. A national campaign established by the American Academy of Otolaryngology. MyLastDip.com is a free program focused at encouraging young smokeless tobacco users to quit. Ricky Maranon/The Daily

This week is Through With Chew Week and today is the Great American Spit Out, encouraging snuff and chewing tobacco users to quit for at least a day.

Through With Chew Week is a nationwide educational campaign designed to decrease smokeless tobacco use and increase the awareness of its negative effects on health, according a press release from MyLastDip.com. The Great American Spit Out was established by the American Academy of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery Inc. in 1989. The MyLastDip.com is a free program focused at young smokeless tobacco users to quit for good. The online program uses proven methods that have helped thousands of smokeless tobacco users to quit. The program is supported by a research grant from the National Cancer Institute and hosted by Oregon Research Institute.

“The purpose of [The Great American Spit Out] is for people to consider the possibility of actually quitting,” said Brian Danaher, Oregon Research Institute senior researcher. “Most of the people who use that kind of tobacco really would like to quit, just as well as smokers would like to quit. Sometimes it takes an event to encourage them to actually make the serious attempt to quit. So the purpose of it is to encourage that process.”

People who use snuff and chewing tobacco regularly are up to 50 times more likely to get oral cancer than people who don’t use smokeless tobacco, according to the U.S. Surgeon General.

Using chewing tobacco and snuff increases the risk of developing skin cancer in your mouth, Danaher said. It can also damage your teeth and gums.

According to the American Cancer Association, smokeless tobacco health effects include: oral and throat cancer, cancer in the esophagus, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, increased risk of heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, leukoplakia (white sores in the mouth that can become cancer), addiction to nicotine, receding gums, bone loss around the roots of teeth, abrasion of teeth, loss of teeth, stained teeth and bad breath.

According to the National Cancer Institute, there are 28 cancer-causing agents in chewing tobacco and snuff. Smokeless tobacco has three to four times the amount of nicotine delivered than by one cigarette.