Durbin to baseball players: Stop using tobacco products

The Southern

CARBONDALE - On the eve of the 2011 World Series, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is among a group of Democratic lawmakers asking major league baseball players to stop using tobacco products on the field.

Durbin, D-Springfield, along with Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today called on the Major League Baseball (MLB) Players Association to ban the use of all tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco, on the field, in the dugout, and in the locker rooms at MLB venues.

"Tomorrow night, an expected 15 million viewers, including many children, will tune in to watch the first game of the series," the senators wrote in a letter released Tuesday. "Unfortunately, as these young fans root for their favorite team and players, they also will watch their on-field heroes use smokeless tobacco products."

The senators want it written in an upcoming MLB contract agreement that players will voluntarily refrain from using tobacco products at games and on camera at all Major League ballparks.

"This would send a strong message to young baseball fans, who look toward the players as role models, that tobacco use is not essential to the sport of baseball," letter continues.

Lawmakers cited a 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which reportedly found the use of smokeless tobacco products has increased by 36 percent among high school boys since 2003, and the proportion of high school boys using smokeless tobacco is now 15 percent.

Durbin says tobacco companies spend millions on advertisements tailored to attract young people to use tobacco products - the industry more than doubled its marketing for smokeless products between 2005 and 2008, to a record $547.9 million.

Earlier this year, Durbin and Lautenberg asked MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to ban the use of tobacco products on the field, in the dugout, and in the locker rooms at MLB venues. Selig has since announced that he will propose banning tobacco in the Major Leagues in the new players' contract. Durbin sent a copy of the letter to the player representatives for teams with strong followings in Illinois: Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.