The NCAA News - News and Features

April 20, 1998

Baseball scores in fight against chewing tobacco

Cancer institute study shows NCAA policy has reduced use by players

What once was just a pinch between the cheek and gum is now a spot between a rock and a hard place.

With a ban on all tobacco use during practice and competition, increased educational efforts and intense media scrutiny, the NCAA slowly but surely is making progress in its efforts to snuff out spit tobacco use by college baseball players.

A study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and supported by the NCAA found that daily spit tobacco use by college baseball players decreased from 25 percent in 1996 to 19.5 percent in 1997.

Bonnie Chakravorty and Robert Buchanan from the Medical University of South Carolina have processed two years' worth of data from a four-year study on smokeless tobacco use by student-athletes at NCAA member institutions.

Chakravorty, the lead investigator, defines "user" as someone who has used spit tobacco at least once per week for the past 90 days.

"In 1997, 22 percent of the baseball players reported that, because of the NCAA policy, they use less smokeless tobacco overall in the course of a day than they used to use," Chakravorty said. "At least it's a start in the right direction."

1994 legislation

The policy Chakravorty cited was the result of legislation adopted by NCAA member schools at the 1994 NCAA Convention. It prohibits the use of all tobacco products by student-athletes and game personnel (for example, coaches, trainers, managers and umpires) during practice and competition. The penalty is disqualification for the remainder of the practice or ejection from the contest.

Among the college baseball players who were asked to participate in the study, 65 percent (909) responded in 1996 and 74 percent (1,032) responded in 1997.

The frequency of spit tobacco users who ignored the ban and used the substance at least one time in practice or in a game is troublingly high, but may be improving.

Chakravorty said baseball players who used spit tobacco in practice at least one time decreased from 61 percent in 1996 to 59 percent in 1997. Likewise, use in games also decreased from 48 percent in 1996 to 40 percent in 1997.

All told, 71 percent of the college baseball players surveyed said they tried smokeless tobacco at least once in their life.

Norm DeBriyn, head baseball coach at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, said he has seen a noticeable decrease in the amount of spit tobacco use by college baseball players.

"For our team, we post the signs and show a video and do everything possible to discourage it," DeBriyn said. "But while we still have two players who chew that I have to get on in practice from time to time, we had 10 to 15 players who chewed just five years ago."

Bill Thurston, head baseball coach at Amherst College and secretary-rules editor of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee, said that he has seen a major decrease in spit tobacco use by players over the past 10 years and a major decrease in use by coaches and umpires over the past five years.

"I don't think I have seen one player chewing tobacco this season," Thurston said. "I think the key is that coaches have enforced it."

Youth Risk Behavior Survey

According to the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 43 percent of U.S. high-school students either smoke cigarettes or cigars, or chew spit tobacco.

The survey of 16,000 students found that 15.8 percent of teen-age boys and 1.5 percent of girls use spit tobacco.

"I think it starts in the high schools, where the kids think it's the macho thing to do," said Bill Rowe Jr., director of athletics at Southwest Missouri State University and chair of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee. "I think the usage decreases after they get to college when they truly understand the dangers involved. It's part of the maturity process."

A September 1997 NCAA study on Substance Use and Abuse Habits of College Student-Athletes, prepared by the NCAA research staff, reached the same conclusion. It revealed that 17.8 percent of spit tobacco users started in junior high or before and 58.7 percent started using in high school.

Emphasis at College World Series

For the second straight year, the NCAA has combined forces with Oral Health America's National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP) and Major League Baseball to provide an interactive display at this year's College World Series.

The display, which will be located on the third-base concourse at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, will feature a continuous video program on the dangers of spit tobacco. Actual pictures of oral cancer patients will be displayed, and volunteers will give away videos, posters, brochures and spit tobacco cessation handbooks to all who are interested.

NSTEP recently completed a tobacco screening and cessation program with nine Major League Baseball teams. Dr. John C. Greene, a former deputy surgeon general, examined 141 players during a two-week tour through spring training camps. In 83 cases (59 percent), one or more oral lesions from spit tobacco use were discovered. Fifteen diagnostic biopsies were recommended.

"Fifteen years ago, I was showing ballplay-ers news clips about oral cancer when I was broadcasting the Game of the Week," said Joe Garigiola, national chairman for NSTEP and a former NBC broadcaster. "I felt like I was swimming upstream against Niagara Falls.

"I'm so thankful that today baseball has embraced our program to the point where both management and the Players Association are helping us spread the word that 'smokeless does not mean harmless,' and is detrimental to one's health. And I'm happy that now players who need help in quitting have somewhere to turn."

Coaches are key

The effect a baseball coach has on spit tobacco use by his players cannot be overstated, said Dr. Nicholas J. Cassisi, team physician at the University of Florida and a member of the NCAA's Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.

Cassisi, who is Florida's faculty athletics representative and chair of the university's department of olaryngology, head and neck surgery, is an expert on head and neck cancer. He has produced a collection of slides from past patients detailing the degeneration of teeth and gums and how spit tobacco use accelerates into full-blown cancer.

Along with a videotape produced by the Academy of Olaryngology, entitled "Through with Chew," Cassisi blends the slides into an effective and powerful lecture that is mandatory for all Gator baseball players. Cassisi also offers a free head and neck exam to any interested player.

"I show a part of the video that details the story of a high-school baseball player who died from cancer that he got from smokeless tobacco," Cassisi said. "It shows him toward the end of his life, bloated with tubes and a traechiostomy. It's gross. I want to have this shock effect because they all think this is not going to happen to them."

Cassisi said the key to success is not his lecture but a commitment to a tobacco-free environment by the coach. "The coach is the one who has to say, 'It's bad for you. I will not tolerate it. If you break the rules, you will be punished,'" he said.

"This program has been very successful and a lot of the credit goes to coach (Andy) Lopez. But it works because the coach is their role model. You have to get buy-in from the coaches and the people the players have high regard for."

Rowe also agreed that the responsibility rests with the coaches and the individual institutions. "I told our coaches straight-out in a meeting before the season what the rule is," he said. "I don't think we can ask our umpires to go to the dugout every inning and ask the players to open their mouths."

More players consider quitting

Chakravorty said she has received data that suggest there has been an increase in the number of players who are thinking about quitting.

"I also have data that might suggest the presence of a policy such as the NCAA's is helpful in arousing awareness and preparing players for future action to quit," she said. "So all is not lost."

The NCAA sports sciences staff will continue to distribute the spit tobacco cessation booklets, posters and videotapes in the coming year. In addition, the staff will concentrate on increasing the effectiveness of the tobacco ban and plans to present more information at coaches conventions and conference meetings. Anyone interested in obtaining educational materials can contact the NCAA sports sciences staff at 913/339-1906.