Smokeless Tobacco Ban Gains Traction in Major League Baseball

San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee recently banned smokeless tobacco from all public athletic fields in the city, including AT&T Park, home of the Giants. The ban, which starts next January, is part of a growing movement to rid Major League Baseball of smokeless tobacco, according to The New York Times.

About one-third of the Giants team uses smokeless tobacco, the article notes. Visiting teams will have to follow the law. More than half the major league teams will play in San Francisco next season.

Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says he expects at least six additional cities with major league teams to pass similar laws by the end of 2015.

“It will turn into an inevitability,” Myers told the newspaper. “This is going to happen. The only question is, will it happen in enough cities so that baseball is tobacco-free by next year? Or will it take one more year?” His group says star baseball players who use smokeless tobacco influence children to do so too.

The Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society estimates about one-third of all players use smokeless tobacco, down from about half two decades ago.

Myers said he has approached the Major League Baseball Players Association twice about banning smokeless tobacco, but the union has opposed the move. The current collective bargaining agreement prohibits players from using smokeless tobacco during televised interviews or carrying cans of smokeless tobacco while fans are in the park.

Myers decided to focus his attention on San Francisco because it is known as a progressive city, and because the Giants had just won their third World Series title in five years.

“For most members of City Councils, concerned about kids in their community, this is a no-brainer,” Myers said. “It’s something simple and straightforward that will have an effect, literally, on millions of young boys.”