Students across the county heard a cautionary tale this week as Gruen Von Behrens, a spokesperson for Oral Health America’s National Spit Tobacco Program (NSTEP), spoke to middle school-aged students about the dangers of tobacco use.

On the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 12, Von Behrens told a group of students at Bethel Elementary School

that he first used spit tobacco when he was 13 years old and growing up in Illinois. He said he first used it to “fit in,” but he soon became addicted. “I thought cancer wouldn’t happen to me; that happened to old people,” he said.

By the age of 17, he had been diagnosed with oral cancer.

Von Behrens said he remembers the first time he used spit tobacco. His friends offered it to him when they went camping together. “I liked the way it tasted,” he said, “I liked the way it made me feel.”

Half way through his junior year of high school, Von Behrens said he began to notice white spots on his tongue. He thought the spots would go away, but they only got bigger. He said he eventually had a tumor that went all the way through his tongue.

Von Behrens said he knew he had cancer, but he was too afraid to tell anyone. He was too scared and he had too much to lose.

He said he was a talented baseball player, but he knew the coach would kick him off the team if he knew Von Behrens had been using tobacco. Von Behrens’s mother worked as a nurse and knew first-hand what happened to people with mouth cancer. Von Behrens said he too knew that treatment for his cancer would mean losing most of his tongue.

One day Von Behrens had to face the reality of his illness when his mother tricked him into going to the doctor’s office by telling him that they were going shopping. He said she had noticed something was wrong, but he told her it was only his wisdom teeth coming in. That day she thought he would just get those painful teeth taken out, but he was forced to tell her and the doctor the truth.

“Guys, until that day, I had never seen my mom cry like that,” Von Behrens told the students at Bethel.
Van Behrens is now 29 and has had 34 surgeries and hundreds of treatments, including one radical surgery that removed half his neck muscles and lymph nodes, and half his tongue. He travels around the country telling his story and warning others so that they will not make the same mistakes he did.

“I’m not here to tell you you’re a bad kid if you use tobacco,” he said. Rather, Von Behrens said he speaks to groups across the country to show young people that the decisions they make today will affect them later. He said if someone had told him how drastically his life could change as a result of the use of spit tobacco, he would have thought twice about using it.

Watauga County Schools tobacco prevention coordinator Dana Holden said in her experience students who are brought to listen to Von Behrens are so interested in what he has to say that they do not need to be told to be still or quiet. Von Behrens said he finds that to be the case everywhere he goes to speak.

“A picture’s worth a thousand words,” Holden said, “and he’s the picture.” She said she has found Von Behrens’s example of the dangers of tobacco use to be very effective. Rather than telling students that it is dangerous and could effect their health, Von Behrens shows them what has happened to him. Von Behrens said his message is not just to warn against spit tobacco, but against any type of tobacco use.

A common misconception about spit tobacco is that just because it is a smokeless tobacco, it is less harmful and less addictive. In truth, dip or chew can have up to five times the amount found in a cigarette.
For more information about how harmful spit tobacco can be and about NSTEP, visit NSTEP.org.