Smokeless tobacco products would be banned from all amateur and professional baseball venues in Los Angeles under a proposal that will go before the City Council today.
Councilman Jose Huizar’s proposal would prohibit smokeless tobacco “at all venues in the city of Los Angeles where organized baseball is played, either amateur or professional.”
The baseball games where smokeless tobacco would be banned could include “youth, school and park leagues played at all city stadiums, parks and venues,” according to the motion, which will be heard first today by the council’s Health, Mental Health and Education Committee before going to the full council.
Huizar and supporters of the motion pointed to a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluding that high school athletes use smokeless tobacco at nearly twice the rate of non-athletes, and that smokeless tobacco use among athletes increased from 2001 to 2013, even as smoking rates dropped dramatically during the same period.
Smokeless tobacco use among male high school athletes was at 17.4 percent in 2013, according to Huizar’s office.
Smokeless tobacco contains cancer-causing chemicals, is linked to oral, pancreatic and esophageal cancer as well as other mouth-related health problems, and could result in nicotine addiction, Huizar said.
“There is no good that comes out of smokeless tobacco use in baseball — not for the players and not for the millions of kids who look up to them,” he said. “It’s time to do the right thing and take tobacco out of the game completely for the good of baseball and the health of our kids and players alike.”
