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by nick__m 889 days ago
The cancer risk from chewing tobacco is mostly caused by the abrasive damage it does to the oral mucosal soft-tissue¹. If someone chewed maples leaf with the same vigor as someone who chewed tobacco it would probably cause oral cancer to.

The nicotine itself doesn't appear to be a carcinogen² so unless your chewing gum is abrasive, I would be surprised if it caused cancer, but the scientific literature on oral cancer and nicotine chewing gum is almost inexistent so my opinion is mostly based on a feeling.

1- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6172921/ 2- https://cancer-code-europe.iarc.fr/index.php/en/ecac-12-ways...