The city of Baltimore in conjunction with the Baltimore Orioles baseball team are hoping to ban Major League Baseball players from using tobacco products in the stadium and on the field.
Although tobacco products are already banned inside major league stadium Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the rule does not apply to players. Due to the Major League Baseball Players Association agreement, the league cannot enforce the stadium rules on the players if it does not violate the law.
Baltimore Council Bill 23-0418 seeks to change that, as WBAL-TV 11 reported, with the reasoning that players’ use of chewing tobacco may influence children. The bill would ban all types of tobacco products from stadiums in the city.
“We know that young people are pretty impressionable and it is important that the athletes they admire and cheer to win ball games are also being good examples for them,” said Baltimore Councilman Kristerfer Burnett. “This mainly impacts the players that are coming to the city. There is a fine that would likely impact players,” the councilman added.
The Baltimore Orioles released a statement in support of the legislation and added that they would create a superfluous ban at “the Ed Smith Stadium Complex, Baltimore’s Spring Training home in Sarasota, Florida, as well as at the Buck O’Neil Complex at Twin Lakes Park.”
“We have made the decision to support the city’s ban of tobacco products at stadiums throughout Baltimore,” said Kerry Watson, Orioles executive vice president of public affairs. “‘As an organization, our top priority is to ensure that we are always doing what is best for our club and our community,” he added.
The Baltimore City NAACP threw its support behind the ordinance as well and said that it would limit “the toxins in the air to our mothers, our expecting mothers, our children and our families.”
The statement did not appear to take into account that the stadium was already smoke-free.
Tobacco products have come under scrutiny recently, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for a federal crackdown on the nicotine pouch product called Zyn.
The Swedish-made product has garnered huge praise from some notable personalities, namely Tucker Carlson and entrepreneur Kyle Forgeard, who operates the mega-popular brand called Nelk.
The New York Times recently theorized that Nelk may have a secret deal with tobacco companies to push the product on young audiences. Criticism came after Forgeard and his cohorts delivered a giant, novelty tin of Zyn to Carlson as part of a viral video.
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