MLB asked to chew on tobacco ban

Major League Baseball and the players' union should "take action to end the use of smokeless tobacco by big-league players," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said Wednesday.

Executives from Major League Baseball and the players' association joined U.S. public-health officials to testify before the panel on the prevalence of smokeless tobacco and whether its use by professional athletes influences children.

"Like many generations of Major League Baseball players, I started using spit tobacco because I saw other players doing it, and I thought it was part of being a major-league player," said Joe Garagiola, a television announcer and former player. "This is a dangerous, deadly habit."

Tobacco of all kinds is banned in minor-league baseball, a policy Garagiola urged major-league players to adopt. While major-league players aren't allowed to smoke cigarettes in uniform in view of spectators, chewing tobacco is different, said David Prouty, chief labor counsel for the Major League Baseball Players Association.

"Cigarettes impact the ability to play the game, are banned from public use under a variety of state and municipal laws, and may endanger the health of those in the immediate area," Prouty said. "Baseball players should not be prohibited from using substances that are perfectly legal and available to the general public."

Tobacco companies led by Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds argue they should be allowed to market smokeless products as a safer alternative to cigarettes.

"Some adults who would otherwise continue smoking may be willing to move to a smokeless-tobacco alternative to cigarettes," said James Dillard, a senior vice president at Altria Group, which owns Philip Morris. "Smokeless-tobacco products are substantially lower on the risk continuum than cigarettes."

Health officials say they worry chewing tobacco will have the opposite effect: that it may act as a gateway to cigarettes, and that children could become addicted to tobacco by emulating its use by baseball players.

"We don't let baseball players go stand out in the field and drink beer," Waxman said during the hearing. "The MLB Association won't let them stand out there and smoke cigarettes," and chewing tobacco also should disappear from games, he said.

Waxman last year supported a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products. The law bans tobacco-brand sponsorships of sports and entertainment events among measures aimed at reducing underage smoking.

Nine of every 10 people who die from mouth and throat cancers used tobacco, according to the American Dental Association (ADA).

Tobacco products also are linked to higher rates of gum disease, one of the leading causes of adult tooth loss, the ADA said in an October letter to the FDA.

Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Deborah Winn of the National Cancer Institute testified about the links between smokeless tobacco and cancer, and the addictiveness of smokeless tobacco.

Pechacek said smokeless tobacco can cause oral cancer and pancreatic cancer, and has been linked to fatal heart attacks.

Banning use would require negotiations with the players union, said Robert Manfred, an executive vice president for Major League Baseball.

"Like drug testing, the regulation of player use of tobacco products is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining with the players association," he said. "But unlike performance-enhancing substances, smokeless-tobacco products are legal in all 50 states for sale to, and consumption by, adults."