Senators pitch for MLB smokeless tobacco ban

If two Senators have their way, baseball fans will no longer have to watch their favorite ball players spit in the dugout or field — at least not tobacco, that is. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) want the Major Leagues to ban smokeless tobacco based on a survey showing that the use of smokeless tobacco among high school boys has increased by 36 percent since 2003. "We now know conclusively that smokeless tobacco endangers the health of baseball players who use it, but it also affects millions of young people who watch baseball," the Senators wrote to baseball commissioner Bud Selig earlier this week.

While ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross does not have a problem with banning chewing tobacco, he takes issue with the Senators’ blanket statement that all forms of smokeless tobacco pose a health threat. “The type of chewing tobacco baseball players use may have some health effects, including possibly oral cancer, but snus, for example, is a much safer form of smokeless tobacco. They need to make it clear that they’re referring to the less refined chewing tobacco.”