With the World Series now under way, U.S. government and health officials this week are calling on professional baseball players to stop chewing tobacco at games and on camera, according to an Associated Press story.
"When players use smokeless tobacco, they endanger not only their own health, but also the health of millions of children who follow their example," wrote Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Tom Harkin (D-IA) in separate letters to Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.
In March, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig endorsed a tobacco ban, but the players union has not yet agreed to the ban, the AP story noted.
Professional baseball's current collective bargaining agreement expires in December, however, and government officials and public health groups are hoping the players will agree to the ban in the new contract.
