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Pallone Demands Chewing Tobacco Be Banned From MLB

April 4, 2016

Commends Five Cities for Banning Chewing Tobacco at Local Ballparks

As the 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) season begins, Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today demanded that chewing tobacco finally be banned from Major League Baseball. In separate letters to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred, Jr. and MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark, Pallone said that MLB should ban the use of smokeless tobacco in all parts of the ballparks, including on the field and in the dugout.

Pallone commended five cities for passing local laws restricting the use of chewing tobacco at local ballparks. This season, players will no longer be able to chew tobacco in Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Similar restrictions will go into effect later this season in Chicago and New York. Pallone said this is a welcome change, but a complete ban is necessary.

“Professional baseball players have long been seen both on the field and in the dugout chewing tobacco,” Pallone said. “This public use amounts to free advertising for the tobacco industry and lends itself to public acceptance of the use of smokeless tobacco. Without a complete ban, smokeless tobacco will continue to receive free advertising from America’s pastime and use of these products will continue to be seen as an acceptable part of the game by fans both young and old.”

Today, millions of teenagers and young adults in the U.S. use smokeless tobacco. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the use of smokeless tobacco by youth athletes increased from 2001 to 2013. The CDC also found that young athletes are almost 80 percent more likely to use smokeless tobacco products than non-athletes.

The dangers of chewing tobacco are well known. According to the National Cancer Institute, smokeless tobacco contains at least 28 cancer causing chemicals, and has devastating health effects, including oral, pancreatic, and esophageal cancer. It also leads to heart and gum disease, tooth decay, and the loss of jaws, chins, cheeks and noses.

Pallone first called for a ban on chewing tobacco at an Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing in 2010 when he was chairman. That hearing was followed by multiple letters to MLB and to individual teams asking them to take action to get chewing tobacco out of the game.

MLB responded to those requests by proposing a ban during the last contract negotiations with the players, but the final agreement fell short because the MLBPA opposed a ban. The contract did, however, prohibit players from smoking when in uniform or in view of spectators, from having tobacco tins in their uniform pockets, and from conducting televised interviews while using smokeless tobacco. Unfortunately, professional players continue to face the devastating health effects associated with the use of smokeless tobacco. In 2014, San Diego Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn died after a long battle with salivary gland cancer, which he attributed to his longtime use of chewing tobacco.

“It is encouraging that many players have voluntarily stopped use of smokeless tobacco, but the MLBPA can and should play a much more active role in protecting current and future Major League players from facing devastating health battles by finally supporting a prohibition on smokeless tobacco in Major League Baseball,” Pallone wrote in his letter to MLBPA Executive Director Clark.

Pallone also noted that the current tobacco policy is not consistent with MLB’s Minor League Policy, which banned chewing tobacco in the minor leagues in the early 1990s.