[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 57 (Tuesday, May 6, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S4035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS SAY ``NO'' TO SPIT TOBACCO

 Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, for far too long, tobacco and 
baseball have been almost synonyous. Dipping or chewing tobacco has 
been one of the rituals of baseball. Batters stepping out of the 
batters box to spit, fielders checking the pouch or tin tucked in their 
hip pocket, bullpen personnel having spitting contests--the fabric of 
baseball has been colored by the mix of tobacco juice and spit that 
accompany the use of smokeless tobacco.
  Unfortunately, even major league baseball superheroes can't avoid the 
consequences of tobacco use. Players have found themselves addicted. 
What seemed to be a colorful and harmless ritual turned out to have a 
deadly undertow. Many ballplayers have had to deal with serious oral 
health problems caused by tobacco use. Some have lost a jaw when oral 
cancer invaded. Some have lost their life.
  Fortunately, the tide is turning. I was involved in an effort several 
years ago to discourage the use of tobacco by ballplayers. It led to 
the banning of smokeless tobacco use in the field and in the clubhouse 
at the collegiate level and throughout the minor leagues.
  Only the major leagues remain open to smokeless tobacco use, and even 
there the glorification of tobacco is subsiding. What the players and 
owners have been unwilling to mandate is gradually happening through 
education and the example of ballplayers who have been willing to take 
a stand. Smokeless tobacco use is on the decline.
  Equally important, ballplayers are beginning to use their positions 
as role models for our Nation's youth to deliver the important message 
that you don't have to chew or dip to be successful on the field.
  I attended this year's opening day game at Comiskey Park, home of the 
Chicago White Sox, and was pleased to see a full-page color ad with an 
important message. Beneath the pictures of one star from each major 
league team was this message: ``We Agree! Chew, Dip, or Snuff Aren't 
Part of Our Game. Don't Make Spit Tobacco Part of Yours! Just Play the 
Game.''
  This message was brought to the fans at Comiskey Park as a public 
service by the Chicago White Sox and the National Spit Tobacco 
Education Program, a program sponsored by ``Oral Health America.''
  The National Spit Tobacco Education Program, or NSTEP, is a 
multimedia, multiyear campaign to communicate to the American public 
that spit tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. This year, 
the initiative includes television and radio public service 
announcements during baseball broadcasts, an educational outreach to 
broadcasters and writers, in-stadium outreaches to the fans including 
scoreboard video messages, and intervention efforts to help current 
players who need assistance in quitting their use of spit tobacco.

  This program is desperately needed. Spit tobacco leads to nicotine 
addiction, gum disease, and tooth loss, as well as mouth and throat 
cancer. Oral cancer is diagnosed in 30,000 people annually and kills 
approximately 8,000 people annually.
  While spit tobacco used to be used primarily by older men, boys and 
young men are now the primary consumers of this deadly product. In 
Illinois, 10 percent of junior high and high school boys have used 
smokeless tobacco in the past month. Across the country, nearly 20 
percent of high school boys are current users of spit tobacco, and the 
average age at which children first try the product is under age 10.
  Moreover, the link between baseball and tobacco exists not only in 
the major leagues, but in the little leagues as well. According to a 
study by the Illinois Department of Public Health, 70 percent of 
children who report regular use of smokeless tobacco are members of 
organized sports teams.
  The NSTEP program is an important part of the effort to reverse this 
trend and help our youngsters and budding all-stars to get off to a 
healthy tobacco-free start in life.
  I would also like to commend the Chicago White Sox for their refusal 
to permit tobacco advertising at Comiskey Park.
  The tobacco companies have used stadium billboards for two purposes: 
to promote their products to the fans in the seats and to get around 
the television advertising ban to pitch their products to the millions 
of fans sitting at home watching the game on television. Obviously, 
many of those fans are children --the very people the tobacco industry 
needs to hook on its products to maintain a steady base of customers.
  Every year, the tobacco companies lose 2 million American customers. 
Four hundred thousand die of tobacco-related diseases and the rest quit 
smoking or die of other causes. To replace those smokers, dippers, and 
chewers, they must turn to our children, because very few adults start 
the dangerous practice of tobacco use.
  The decision by the White Sox to forego the profits associated with 
tobacco advertising is an important step that helps reduce the barrage 
of marketing that reaches our Nation's children. Both that decision and 
the ballplayers' campaign against spit tobacco send an important 
message: that baseball and tobacco don't mix.
  I applaud these actions by the players and the team, and I encourage 
every player and every team to follow these good examples.

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