Players have to set an example for the children and the elimination of all tobacco use on the game
Statement Knock Out Tobacco Coalition Park
In the 2012 baseball season starts, our Health Organization urged Major League Baseball (MLB) and the players union is strictly subject to the restrictions on the use of smokeless tobacco products included in the new contract was announced in November. These constraints provide a historic opportunity for players to improve their health and become better role models for millions of young fans.
We also encourage individual players to go further than the agreement, and to completely eliminate tobacco use in games.
In accordance with the agreement that MLB and MLB Players Association announced in November, big-league players, managers and coaches will no longer be able to carry out the tin or packet of tobacco in the form or on their bodies in the games, or at any time, for fans stadiums. They are prohibited from use of smokeless tobacco during a television interview, signing autographs and other events where they meet the fans, or at team-sponsored performances. Violators may be subject.
Restrictions on the time when the tobacco industry is spending record amounts to help smokeless and connect a new generation of young people. A report last surgeon called tobacco “pediatric epidemic” and noted that the tobacco industry uses an array of smokeless and marketing tactics to entice young people. This has an effect: the rate of smokeless tobacco use high school boys soared by 36 percent since 2003.
We continue to support a complete ban on tobacco use in games and on camera. However, the new contract represents a significant progress. Baseball players use tobacco from the first days play. This agreement – and this season – marks the first time, the league and the players admitted it’s time to break this unhealthy addiction.
New restrictions of tobacco will help change the way smokeless tobacco products, limiting the powerful imagery of big league players using these addictive and deadly products – effectively the celebrity endorsement of them. Other provisions of the new contract, including public outreach programs and educational projects aimed at young people, as well as allow players and other baseball officials to use their influence to stop smokeless tobacco use among young fans.
Enforcement of these restrictions is necessary, and we urge the management team and staff, as well as officials of the League, strictly implement them. To encourage fans to play a role, and support requirements, we ask them to report violations to the Knock Out Tobacco Coalition of the park.
New restrictions of tobacco is the result of hard work by a broad national coalition of supporters and fans who have come together to bring this matter to the attention of the public and press for a tobacco ban in the contract of MLB.
Coalition for Tobacco Knock out of the park include: Campaign Tobacco-Free Kids, American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Cancer Society, the American Dental Association, American Heart Association, Legacy, the American Lung Association, American Medical Association, Oral Health America and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Johnson.
The coalition has grown during the 2011 baseball season includes more than 200 supporters, including dozens of state employees across the country, the youth league baseball, baseball prominent figures, religious leaders, state and local health groups and others. Fans and lawyers have sent more than 35,000 messages in Major League Baseball and MLB teams and players, urging them to action.