DC may join growing list of cities ending tobacco use in sports venues
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* Alexandra Dixon

The District of Columbia may become the sixth major U.S. city to ban tobacco use inside major sports venues.

Introduced by City Council members Yvette Alexander, Mary Cheh and Kenyan McDuffie, a new bill seeks to expand previous legislation that prohibits smoking at large sports stadiums and arenas to include the use of smokeless tobacco such as chew, dip or snuff.

Venues in the city that would be affected by the ban include Nationals Park, the home of the Nationals baseball team; D.C. United’s Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium; Verizon Center, home to the Capitals, Wizards and Mystics; and stadiums used for college and high school sporting events.

The proposed ban, highlighted at a July 7 news conference and public hearing in Washington, D.C., comes on the heels of similar legislation passed by other U.S. cities with Major League Baseball stadiums, including San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and New York City. San Francisco was first to impose a ban. Most bans were in effect before the start of the 2016 baseball season.

“We know that smokeless tobacco use by MLB players endangers the health of impressionable youth who follow their lead, as well as the players themselves,” said Richard Benson, MD, PhD, president of the board of directors for the American Heart Association Greater Washington Region, in a news release. “It sets a terrible example for the millions of young people who watch baseball and see their favorite players and managers using tobacco.”

Smokeless tobacco contains at least 28 carcinogens and can cause serious health problems, including oral, esophageal and pancreatic cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Despite decreases in cigarette use, the use of smokeless tobacco among youth athletes increased 11 percent from 2001 to 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC also reported that 17.4 percent of male high school athletes used smokeless tobacco in 2013.

“What is most shocking is that…adolescent boys who played organized sports are far more likely to use smokeless tobacco than other adolescent boys,” said Matthew Myers, JD, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids at the news conference. “It is the only place where athletes are at a greater health risk.”

A second bill, introduced last year and discussed at the public hearing, would see D.C. join 170 other states and municipalities in the U.S. that have raised the minimum legal sale age for tobacco to 21. Both Hawaii and California have enacted statewide regulations and more than 100 municipalities in Massachusetts have prohibited the sale of tobacco to people under the age of 21.

Raising the purchasing age will reduce tobacco use by making it more difficult for high school students to access tobacco products, according to Tobacco 21, a campaign that is advocating to raise the minimum legal sale age of tobacco and nicotine products to 21 across the U.S.

Both D.C. bills are now under review by the City Council. Neither bill includes a prohibition on electronic cigarette use, but council member Alexander introduced an additional bill in June to ensure that e-cigarettes face the same public space use restrictions as traditional tobacco products.

In the city, e-cigarettes are already banned at Nationals Park and the Verizon Center and their use is restricted to designated smoking areas at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.

In March, APHA joined other health organizations in a letter to Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, calling on them to prohibit the use of smokeless tobacco by players, managers, coaches and spectators.

To learn about APHA’s tobacco advocacy work, visit [www.apha.org/tobacco](http://www.apha.org/tobacco). For more on banning tobacco use at sports venues, visit [www.tobaccofreekids.org](http://www.tobaccofreekids.org) and [www.tobaccofreebaseball.org](http://www.tobaccofreebaseball.org).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association