Unlike with cigarettes, smokeless tobacco has no physical effect on those nearby. Yes, seeing a sports figure use it on the field or in the dugout may encourage kids to start. But out of the public's view, in the clubhouse? Seeing someone spit brown liquid into a cup is a disgusting sight, but I don't think most ballplayers share my nausea. So, assuming disgust isn't a factor, how is this anyone else's business?
As long as you have players coming from the Domican Republic,Puerto Rico, or Latin America, you will have players who use tobacco. The best MLB could do is inform players of the ban. Perhaps the insurance policies could be written to deny coverage or reimbursement of illness due to tobacco, but the courts would probably throw that out.
As much as I abhor Big Daddy government looking over anyone's shoulder, the health consequences of smokeless or any other tobacco and the role model status of professional athletes makes me supportive of the ban.
But honestly, how does anyone start using smokeless tobacco? A more disgusting personal habit is hard to conjure up.
But honestly, how does anyone start using smokeless tobacco? A more disgusting personal habit is hard to conjure up.
2
Fukushima plumes, radioactive seafood and depleted uranium swirling the planet will kill us ALL long before smokeless tobacco and e-cigs will. I got cancer two years ago and I never smoked or used those products at all. The smoke police use junk science and are at it again.
Smokeless tobacco such as Copenhagen contains formaldehyde and cadmium, horrible additives to be placed so close to the salivary glands. The effects of such cancers are painful and gruesome. Hopefully, this terribly addictive product will become less popular with these new rules.
Doesn't belong anywhere. A short story. I had two uncles, brothers, who used this disgusting product 40 years ago stopping 20 years ago. Died 6 years ago after one had his tongue removed, Oral Cancer, and his brother lost the ability to swallow and was on feeding tube for his last 3 years. Let the Ballplayers spend an afternoon in the local Cancer Ward. Dip away.
1
Ballplayers with cancer have go into baseball dugouts and talked to players; the users still use.
1
Ballplayers are role models for our kids. They have an obligation to those kids who look up to them and who imitate them to take that role seriously. Tobacco is an evil that should not be taken lightly. Come on guys - we are paying you to be good citizens.
3
No, I can't dial 3-1-1 because I'm from North Carolina, but I complained to the New York City Mayor's hotline via email MULTIPLE TIMES last year asking them to enforce its chewing tobacco ban EVERY TIME I observed Yankee or visiting team players with a wad or tin who was obviously breaking the law. The Mayor's Office never responded and I got the message: they were never going to actually enforce the law.
1
Yet another among hundreds of other reasons to avoid baseball: the acceptance of smokeless tobacco.
Re Tony Gwinn blaming his salivary gland cancer on tobacco: Actually, cytomegalovirus is the cause of the most common type of salivary gland tumor.
http://news.usc.edu/29494/Common-Virus-Identified-as-Cancer-causing-Onco...
"All four prospective causal criteria for viruses and cancer are fully satisfied: (1) protein markers for active hCMV are present in 97% of MECs; (2) markers of active hCMV are absent in non-neoplastic SG tissues; (3) hCMV-specific proteins (IE1, pp65) are in specific cell types and expression is positively correlated with severity; (4) hCMV correlates and colocalizes with an upregulation and activation of an established oncogenic signaling pathway (COX/AREG/EGFR/ERK)."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22101257
The anti-tobacco crowd are charlatans who ignore the role of viruses in order to falsely blame tobacco.
http://news.usc.edu/29494/Common-Virus-Identified-as-Cancer-causing-Onco...
"All four prospective causal criteria for viruses and cancer are fully satisfied: (1) protein markers for active hCMV are present in 97% of MECs; (2) markers of active hCMV are absent in non-neoplastic SG tissues; (3) hCMV-specific proteins (IE1, pp65) are in specific cell types and expression is positively correlated with severity; (4) hCMV correlates and colocalizes with an upregulation and activation of an established oncogenic signaling pathway (COX/AREG/EGFR/ERK)."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22101257
The anti-tobacco crowd are charlatans who ignore the role of viruses in order to falsely blame tobacco.
So you are for tobacco use?
1
Don't scoogie my personal freedom to spend my million anyway i want,.....no matter how ignorant i am. play ball!!!!
My cousin, a bright, talented man, took a job as a chemist for a company that produced a popular brand of smokeless tobacco.
He soon discovered the pleasure of stuffing some into his mouth, between his lips and gums, and enjoying the effects of its various substances upon him.
He later discovered that he had developed oral cancers at the locations where he placed his "pinches".
Soon later, his heart stopped, never to beat again. Another victim of smokeless tobacco, he left behind a wife and children who all wept at their loss.
To today's Boys of Summer, by all means feel free to poison your bodies with your chews. And if you should leave behind wives, girl friends, and children, you may leave this world knowing that there will be other men ready to take your places in their lives. There are other men standing by to love your girl friends, to embrace your wives, to father your children and see them grow up.
Is that ok with you?
He soon discovered the pleasure of stuffing some into his mouth, between his lips and gums, and enjoying the effects of its various substances upon him.
He later discovered that he had developed oral cancers at the locations where he placed his "pinches".
Soon later, his heart stopped, never to beat again. Another victim of smokeless tobacco, he left behind a wife and children who all wept at their loss.
To today's Boys of Summer, by all means feel free to poison your bodies with your chews. And if you should leave behind wives, girl friends, and children, you may leave this world knowing that there will be other men ready to take your places in their lives. There are other men standing by to love your girl friends, to embrace your wives, to father your children and see them grow up.
Is that ok with you?
6
I can't believe MLB is taking seriously. It is extremely easy to see players on TV during MLB games clearly putting smokeless tobacco in their cheeks/mouths. Look at the second row of players in the dugout during color commentary shots when a team is at bat. I notice this frequently, and find it difficult to believe there is MLB enforcment, not to mention of course the absurd idea that a municipality is going to enforce this on the players.
1
It's their life, the government shouldn't be involved in your back pocket unless your a violent threat.
I really don't see how the city has any responsibility to create this rule. I get smoking, and that effects others, but I really don't see how this is appropriate. If these people are looked up to and emulated by children then its the parents responsibility to enforce morals that they choose. Besides. they shouldn't be emulating professional athletes anyway. They'd be better off emulating some scientist or teacher (someone worthy of respect and admiration.) Kids emulating athletes is wrong, and it is a problem with what our society chooses to value. Just look at their salaries! Every person has a right to do what they want to/with their own body. This is unnecessary regulation if I've ever seen it.
1
For the players who feel like it's messing with their liberty: get out of the game. Nobody owes you a living.
We don't need more unnecessary laws to parent grown men.
let those "grown men" take care of themselves without any government(i.e. taxpayers' money) help when they get cancer of the mouth, etc. same with folks who want to be free and ride their bikes without helmets, people who like to use drugs, etc. if a person wants to take risks that they do not have to take, then let them pay the for the consequences. that is being "free" without the government looking over their shoulders.
2
Inappropriate complaints from drug ladden, semi-talented athletes, who are over-paid "entertainers", at best.
Setting a good example for all who watch the games on TV is important, and that's plenty of reason to prohibit the substance within the stadium walls.
Watching players spit is not pleasant for many viewers.
And a chew-free home team clearly has a nice advantage if the visiting players are unable to indulge their habit during the game.
Watching players spit is not pleasant for many viewers.
And a chew-free home team clearly has a nice advantage if the visiting players are unable to indulge their habit during the game.
1
"The Mets’ David Wright does not use smokeless tobacco, but when asked about the bill, he responded carefully. “On one hand, I would argue we are adults and that’s a choice we choose to make,” he wrote in an email. “On the other hand, we are role models and the last thing we want is for an underage kid to begin using because they watched their favorite players do it.”
This is the thing. Like it or not the kids mimic all kinds of habits of their favorite athlete from how they take their batting stance to how they wear their uniform. If they need to dip do it away from the limelight.
This is the thing. Like it or not the kids mimic all kinds of habits of their favorite athlete from how they take their batting stance to how they wear their uniform. If they need to dip do it away from the limelight.
2
Smokeless tobacco is a vile poison. Cancer of the gums,tongue,salivary glands,stomach,esophagus,and and other parts of the body; loss of teeth;addiction to nicotine. Major league baseball should vigorously ban this
"product". These users are a direct reason why young people start using snuff and other smokeless tobacco products. Personal freedom?Ridiculous. Why not let the players wear loaded handguns while playing. The NRA would approve.
"product". These users are a direct reason why young people start using snuff and other smokeless tobacco products. Personal freedom?Ridiculous. Why not let the players wear loaded handguns while playing. The NRA would approve.
2
Why stop with chewing tobacco? Those fat, rich ball players should also be banned from eating bacon, Brie, pastrami, steak, butter, whole milk, chicken fat and also be banned from drinking beer, bourbon, diet carbonated drinks, coffee, sweet iced tea, wine and Champagne. Those spoiled ball players get away with murder, so I say don't stop with just banning chewing tobacco, stop them from breathing the air around Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, where the dumbest New Yorker can tell you the air there is worse than in Mexico City...by far.
"Bill de Blasio, said city enforcement of the smokeless-tobacco ban was complaint-based; anyone can file a complaint by calling 311. The law falls under the Smoke-Free Air Act."
So smokeless tobacco violates a smoke-free air act. Smokeless tobacco. And the water vapor from an e-cigarette? That's not smoke either. Nor is it a tobacco product. NY State is violating the individual rights of its citizens by pretending that something is which it is not -- that a smokeless substance is smoke. It's smoke and mirrors for New York's nannies and culture commissars.
So smokeless tobacco violates a smoke-free air act. Smokeless tobacco. And the water vapor from an e-cigarette? That's not smoke either. Nor is it a tobacco product. NY State is violating the individual rights of its citizens by pretending that something is which it is not -- that a smokeless substance is smoke. It's smoke and mirrors for New York's nannies and culture commissars.
2
maybe those who complained about violation of their individual rights for use of smokeless tobacco should also not mind having to pay for the operations and care (no insurance or government help) when they get cancer of the mouth, etc. the price of individual right is on them.
2
So, the fan in the stands could get fined for using tobacco, but the player on the field thinks that because they "play baseball" they should not have to comply, that it would be an "undue burden"? That's utterly ridiculous. I'm not advocating for tobacco police, but the law is the law, it's not supposed to matter who you are or what you do. To argue otherwise, as Curtis Granderson does, and the unnamed player who thinks it would be an "undue burden" on the players, reflects pure arrogance, and neglects the fact that they play a child's game for a living, they are entertainers, not Demi-gods.
1
If companies and corporations can now make employment contingent on negative cotinine tests (the byproduct of nicotine that can stick around in urine for up to a month after last use) for jobs ranging from janitorial staff to physician, then arguably MLB can and should be able to as well. These are American Idols who set examples for our youth and reflect the norms of our nation. I don't agree with any of it--to me it ALL represents an invasion of privacy since the substance is question is fully legal in the US.
However, if making millions of dollars isn't incentive enough to quit dipping then maybe they should rethink their career choice. Those in the minimum wage labor force don't have that luxury.
However, if making millions of dollars isn't incentive enough to quit dipping then maybe they should rethink their career choice. Those in the minimum wage labor force don't have that luxury.
1
The New York City Mayor's Office claims it has received no complaints about MLB players chewing smokeless tobacco. NOT TRUE! I can't begin to recount how many times I submitted official complaints last season when TV cameras caught Yankee or visiting players (think: Orioles 1B Chris Davis and his big cheek wad) chewing. When no one from the Mayor's Office ever responded, I knew the City was never going to enforce the smokeless tobacco ban and the legislation was as good as useless.
1
MaYbe we should go back to solid, stick tobacco,(like in Huck FInn's America:" Gimme'a'chaw've yer t'baccy!"), which had to be bitten off and energetically masticated. The resultant "spit" was black or brown and required the presence among most US bars, politicians offices and other facilities catering to men, of "spittoons", which few en were any good at hitting. The areas around most American spittoons resembled the post action photos of area bombing in Europe and Asia after the war. Proving that we had missed about 85% of the time-maybe more- and killed civilians or no one, and hit nothing. Similarly, hawking of t'baccy juice, merely proved the poor eyesight, aim and bad manners of most American chewers of tobacco leaf. It was wonderfully profitable for rug makers , cleaners, and the makers and finishers of fine floors and providers of cleaning products!
Doctors should be permitted to deny treatment to those who choose tobacco. Send them to another doctor (who can elso turn them away), or perhaps prescribe 6-months of free nicotine patches or whatever opther remedy is acknowledged by MD's to have the best chance of snapping the habit. Once the horse is out of the barn, society is forced in its goodness (?) to spend tons of good money after bad. The real "illness" is what persuades someone, despite 50 years of awareness and evidence, to take the risk of trying tobacco in the first place. I know: many are teens who are not ready to think straight. But this isn't tooth decay--it's one of society's immense, pressing problems.
Harsh? Yes, short-term. Almost unthinkable? Sadly, it is. If you want to end this scourge, "no treatment" could do it. Open to anyone else's better idea. How much would the costs of healthcare immediately decline? 25% instantly?
Harsh? Yes, short-term. Almost unthinkable? Sadly, it is. If you want to end this scourge, "no treatment" could do it. Open to anyone else's better idea. How much would the costs of healthcare immediately decline? 25% instantly?
1
Ridiculous. Banning cigarettes in parks was justifiable because of how it impacted people around the smoker. But saying that players - and fans - have no right to use a legal substance that has no effects on other people (please don't choke up a feeble argument regarding spitting, there are ways around that) smacks of stepping over a big red line. What's next - banning players from having a Coke?
1
The whole thing is outrageous. It's the blatant example that the banning of smoking was never about the "poor exposed non-smokers" by controlling the smoke. It was about controlling smokERS and associated tobacco users. These players are grown men being reduced to babies by tyrants like Matthew Myers!... who dare calls his "gun to heads" (fines) a "culture change" -- as if it was produced naturally by shifts in opinions rather than through sheer force by abuse of law. Smokeless tobacco in what's called a Smoke-Free law tells you just how easily our free society was duped by Big Anti-Smoker. It doesn't matter how much any posters here hate or condemn smoking. There's a principle involved that they are all too frighteningly willing to suspend at their intolerant whim. Tobacco is legal and these are adults. Smoking is normal. This neo-prohibition is not. And bodes ill for everyone and everything else.
Matt Myers is right--if you change the mores of tobacco use, it tends to fade away--just as it has with secondhand smoke. Much better for teeth,too-- as well as the other issues mentioned.
7
Yeah more big daddy government for the betterment of the people. When we will we outlaw alcohol again? Perhaps limiting it to one bar in a city? Obesity is a huge health issue these days. Lets limit high fat ice cream like Ben & Jerry's to one pint a month. Can't have bad content pushed in books because of possible negative influences on teh public. Need to ban Salinger, Burroughs and those early writers on revolution pushing possible overthrow of government. That Thomas Jefferson, a threat to the present day public. How about just letting people decide their own paths? Granted some restrictions such as public smoking because of second hand smoke influencing negatively others is good. Chewing tobacco hurts only those doing it, though I never have. Though within the workplace which is what baseball stadiums are, those that own and control them have always had a say. Is the use of tobacco more a bad influence than those champagne fights and spraying along with beer beer drinking after winning a playoff series? Without seeing that as a youth would I have gone to enjoy beer for 50+ years? YES loved Mickey mantle as a youth, seeing him smoke cigs didn't get me to smoke ever. And his drinking had no influence on me either. Probably the biggest influence is parents and what they do at home as to kids. lets end the need for search warrants so law can break down the doors to see if any cigs, beer or Ben & Jerry's are in the house. Who are adults to decide for themselves.
But when the ballplayers run out of their $$ and get sick, you want to pay their medical bills?
Nicotine addiction is an illness, regardless of the form of ingestion. All addicts, particularly those held in esteem by children and adolescents, have an obligation to them not to display their addiction particularly in public.
It isn't cool, it isn't part of the game, it will likely kill them, or someone dlose to them.
It isn't cool, it isn't part of the game, it will likely kill them, or someone dlose to them.
15
Ah, the old "It's for the children" ruse, complete with hyperbolic claims of smokeless tobacco's "deadliness." It's none of my business if another individual uses these products and it's none of your business either. "Mind your own business" is still a valid social principle, despite the efforts of the nation's busybodies to force their opinions on others.
Coffee is an addiction. Anything can be a mental addiction. Ice Cream is mine not to to freezer for some high fat, high end Ben & Jerry's. Try taking my Cherry Garcia or NY Super Fudge out of my cold dead hands. Tell me how smokeless tobacco will kill somebody that's around a person who uses it? Living in areas with higher air pollution is bigger threat. Best end all those big city ball clubs where pollution is higher. The Dodgers are a threat to life. Being celeb brings no obligation other than what one's contract states. I always like Charles Barkley's line, "I'm no role model, I'm a basketball player period, that's what I get paid to do." No celebs should be out seen drinking a cocktail or eating fat food or kissing in public if not married? After all, bad examples. No parties in backyards near my house, I don't want to have my kids see people having a beer?
"Nicotine addiction" is a lie that "could only be sustained by systematically ignoring all contradictory evidence."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116468/
It's flagrant political corruption that none of the recent pretended defenders of science has ever cared a whit about.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116468/
It's flagrant political corruption that none of the recent pretended defenders of science has ever cared a whit about.