Tobacco and mouth cancer

Smoking or chewing tobacco is the most important cause of mouth cancer. Over 90% of mouth cancer patients use tobacco in some form.

Giving up is hard work but you can get help with quitting.

Smoking and mouth cancer

In the UK, cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking are the main forms of tobacco use. These are all causes of mouth cancer.

But the good news is that giving up smoking reduces your risk of mouth and other cancers. In fact, ten years after giving up your risk of mouth cancer is nearly the same as that of a non-smoker.

Understanding why you smoke is the first step towards giving up. You can read more reasons to quit and tips for giving up in our healthy living tobacco section. Fore more information about the chemicals in cigarettes see our Smoke is Poison website.

Smokeless tobacco, betel nut and mouth cancer

Smokeless tobacco includes many different types of tobacco that you can chew, suck or inhale. We know that almost all brands of smokeless tobacco cause mouth cancer.

In the UK, chewing tobacco is most common amongst South Asian communities. Some people chew a mixture of ingredients known as paan which includes betel nut (also known as areca nut).

Chewing paan is a very old cultural practice. But it is damaging to health. Scientists now know that betel nut can cause mouth cancer even if you chew it without tobacco.

Using tobacco and alcohol

People who use tobacco and drink too much alcohol have the highest risk of mouth cancer. Up to three-quarters of mouth cancers are caused in this way.

If you use tobacco and drink it is important to be aware of the early warning signs for mouth cancer.

Getting help with quitting

For more help and advice from other organisations:

• Call the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0 169, open 7am-11pm every day
• Visit the NHS website www.gosmokefree.co.uk
• Call the Quit helpline on 0800 00 22 00, open 9am-9pm every day
• Visit the Quit website www.quit.org.uk

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