Processed tobacco contains at least 3,000 chemical compounds including a lot of stuff you don't want in your body. Nicotine, an addictive drug, is what gets you hooked on any form of tobacco. Holding one pinch of spit tobacco in your mouth for 30 minutes delivers as much nicotine as 3-4 cigarettes.
There have been at least 28 cancer-causing chemicals identified in spit tobacco including:

• Nitrosamines -- These are the most powerful cancer-causing agents in spit tobacco. While only 5 ppb (parts per billion) of nitrosamines are allowed in consumer products such as beer or bacon, spit tobacco contains from 20 to 43,000 times more nitrosamines!
• Polonium 210 -- radioactive particles that turn into radon
• Formaldehyde -- embalming fluid
• Cadmium -- a metallic element; its salts are poisonous
• Arsenic -- a metallic element which forms poisonous compounds
  

From the National Cancer Institute.

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