House Democrats want to ban tobacco use in Major League Baseball and implement testing for human growth hormone (HGH), they wrote in a letter Wednesday.
"These issues affect the integrity of the game, the health of your players, and most important, the health of teenagers who aspire to be like pro players," wrote Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Frank Pallone of New Jersey, addressing Commissioner Bud Selig and MLB players' union executive director Michael Weiner.
Waxman is the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee and Pallone is the top Democrat on the panel's health subcommittee. They held a hearing last year on chewing tobacco and smokeless tobacco.
"There is ample precedent for a ban on the use of smokeless tobacco on the field and in the dugout," Waxman and Pallone wrote. "The use of cigarettes by players in uniform and in view of the public has been banned for over three decades. Minor league baseball has banned the use or possession of smokeless tobacco in ballparks since 1993, with no adverse impact on the game or its players."
ESPN reported that four senators have already urged a ban on chewing tobacco, and a collection of health advocacy groups is supporting the effort. Selig expressed his support in March, and Weiner said in June that the union will make a "sincere effort" to address the issue.
Selig testified in 2008 that he would support an HGH test "when a valid, commercially available and practical test for HGH becomes reality," and Weiner's predecessor, Donald Fehr, made similar statements, ESPN reported.
"The time to begin testing for HGH in baseball has arrived," the congressmen wrote.
