It’s already illegal to smoke within the friendly confines of Fenway Park, but local health officials are trying to rid baseball’s oldest ballpark of tobacco altogether.
The Boston Herald reports that several area health groups are supporting the efforts of a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that is trying to rid Major League Baseball of smokeless tobacco with the hopes of getting it banned from Fenway Park.
The director of the Boston Public Health Commission, Barbara Ferrer, is among those hoping to orchestrate a ban on smokeless tobacco at Fenway. Ferrer is also part of a group of health officials across the country that is working with Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to get smokeless tobacco out of Major League Baseball altogether.
“I understand this issue as a former smoker, but I also feel like we all have roles to play as we’re adults, and making sure that we’re not modeling unhealthy behaviors is something we can all do and do easily,” Ferrer said, according to the Herald.
Smokeless tobacco has long been synonymous with the game of baseball, but it is currently banned at the minor league level and not at the major league level. Health groups are trying to raise awareness about the issue in hopes of having the ban extended to the bigs as the 2012 collective bargaining agreement is negotiated.
“Smokeless tobacco in and of itself is very dangerous,” Ferrer said. “Because there’s no smoke associated with it I think people think it’s not as dangerous.”
