Rob: Now, Brian, we can't really talk about oral health without talking
about the impact that smokeless tobacco can have on our oral health.
What are the concerns about young people that still dip?
Brian: Well, and that is a big concern.
I think, if you look, a lot of these young people have role models in the
major league teams, in the baseball and in the professional sports, and
at one time it was a very big part of the culture, was to dip.
And now, you, I think you've seen it slowly decrease.
Thirty to forty percent of major league players still dip or use smokeless
tobacco.
NCAA actually has banned the use of smokeless tobacco, so there are
affects.
People that are trying to bring back the usage of smokeless tobacco and
promotion of it; however young people are very susceptible to peer
pressure, so it is still a major concern as far as your oral health.
Rob: Now, in addition to these large organizations, you also met an individual
here in Oklahoma that's pretty much made it his life work, now that he's
retired, to go out and talk to young people about the dangers of using
smokeless tobacco.
Brian: I did Rob.
I had the opportunity to sit down with James Brigance, retired coach
from southeastern Oklahoma, who unfortunately witnessed
first-hand how tragic mouth cancer from dipping and using smokeless
tobacco can be as it took the life of one of his star athletes, and he made
it his promise to tell Sean Marsee's story to every student across the
state.
James Brigance: I'll caution you against this though.
If you think it's cool, you're stupid.
Brian: A phrase not often said to a classroom full of 7th grade boys, but a
point that James BrIgance wants to have sink in, before it's too late.
James Brigance: Years ago, and really it hadn't been all that many years ago,
we really didn't know the dangers of smokeless tobacco.
At that time, we were starting to understand some of the dangers of
smoking, but smokeless tobacco, everyone really thought that was the safe
alternative to smoking.
Brian: And it wasn't until one of his former star athletes at Talihina,
named Sean Marsee, who died over 20 years ago from a severe case of
mouth cancer that stemmed from chewing tobacco.
It was then Brigance decided to go from school-to-school telling
Sean's story.
Brigance: Listen to me; there's a word called cancer.
Sean was an outstanding athlete, won lots of medals in track, sprinter,
long jumper, a really outstanding, easy to say and someone always says
something like that after you lose someone, but he really was an outstanding
young man.
Brian: Marsee was only 19 when he died.
His story was so shocking that Disney produced a movie to warn teenagers
against the dangers of smokeless tobacco, a film that Brigance has shared
with a number of schools in southeastern Oklahoma.
Movie narrator: The Monday following his high school graduation, Sean's biopsy
revealed, that the sore on his tongue, was cancerous.
Nine months later, after three major operations, Sean Marsee died.
Brigance: I try to target the younger kids, try to catch them maybe before
they get started, you know is ideal.
But I've had high school kids come back and say, boy I appreciate that, or
maybe I'll see them at Wal-Mart, you know a year or two years later, and
they'll say, boy I quit that stuff.
So yeah it makes you feel good; bottom line is, if you save one, then it's
all been worth it.
Brian: And on this day at Heavener elementary, Brigance may have done
just that.
Josh Naylor: He's made a bunch of kids real scared, when he was talking.
I bet they'll change their ways.
I know I will.