THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Smokeless Tobacco Warnings Are Ignored

Brace yourself for another warning about tobacco.

More than 20 years after the report that cigarette smoking is a potential health hazard, the surgeon general has concluded that the use of smokeless tobacco poses similar risks.

For the first time, it has been documented that oral cancer, oral leukemia, gum disease, tooth loss and nicotine addiction can be achieved without lighting up. All it takes is a little pinch between the cheek and gums.

Of particular significance in the new surgeon general’s report--hailed as the first comprehensive study of smokeless tobacco and analogous to a 1964 study on the hazards of cigarette smoking--is the group of product users it affects.

Cigarette smokers, it can be argued, are difficult to classify by age or occupation. Smokeless tobacco, it can be assumed, is for people who want to fulfill their nicotine habit while maintaining free use of their hands.

Therein lies the attraction of smokeless tobacco to many athletes.

According to the surgeon general’s report, more than 12 million Americans used smokeless tobacco or snuff last year. More than half were regular users.

Obviously, not all were athletes.

“I wouldn’t say you could classify the type of person that uses it,” said Jack Eicher, manager of Park Oaks Liquor in Thousand Oaks. , which is in the general vicinity of two colleges and a high school. “Young adults and old adults use it. They are not necessarily sports types entirely.”

No, not entirely. Nor, however, are athletics devoid of smokeless tobacco users.

In professional sports, particularly baseball, the use is obvious. A golf-ball sized wad of tobacco in a player’s cheek is thought by many to be a part of the uniform. The impression that smokeless tobacco and athletes are an ideal marriage is held, among others, by younger athletes who often emulate their role models.

Valley-area high school students as young as 14 admit they are regular users of smokeless tobacco products. Call them The Little Dippers. Chaw-Babies.

It is a rite of spring that threatens the bite of the future.

“Some athletes are not old enough to know what it does to their systems,” Simi Valley baseball Coach Mike Scyphers said. “I wish kids would be educated throughout school on the health hazards it presents.”

As a result of the surgeon general’s report, warning labels similar to those found on cigarette cartons may be placed on smokeless tobacco containers.

Coaches don’t expect the labels by themselves to end the use of smokeless tobacco products. Already, state law prohibits sales to people under the age of 18. CIF and school rules prohibit the use of tobacco on school grounds.

Yet, smokeless tobacco has not gone away.

A reporter covering a high school football game last fall was approached by two players who noticed he had a container of smokeless tobacco in his pants pocket. While their coach paid attention to the game, they each took a “dip” without his knowledge.

Just one of many examples.

Scyphers, for one, believes his program is immune from smokeless tobacco products.

“It’s not used on my field by my team,” Scyphers said. “It’s my job as head coach to educate my players on the effects of what it can do to them on a long-term basis.”

Scyphers’ objective has a hitch. Two of his assistant coaches use smokeless tobacco.

“They are old enough to make their own decisions,” Scyphers said. “But if I dipped, it would be pretty hard for me to tell my players no to.”

At Cal State Northridge, there is no official policy against smokeless tobacco. It is used regularly by members of the baseball team and by second-year Coach Terry Craven.

Craven said baseball players are not the only users of the products. In fact, a member of the Northridge women’s softball team also chews. Baseball players are, however, the most visible users of smokeless tobacco, Craven said.

“Baseball is the most visible because you see it in a person’s pocket and see him put it in his mouth,” he said. “It’s right out in the open and you see people doing it repeatedly.

“But if you could get into other sports, like football, they are using tobacco, too. I would say that, at our school, there are as many football players and track athletes using it as baseball players.”

Athletes are not alone in their use of smokeless tobacco. They are unique, however, in that their use of it occurs in public.

“Athletes are in the spotlight,” Craven said. “In the athletic program of any school, the coaches are in the paper, and what they do is reflected in the news.

“Other teachers are not out in a stadium with people looking at them making a decision that what you’re doing is right or wrong. You’re in a more secure environment as far as publicity is concerned.

“That’s part of the game for an athlete. They have to realize that what they say, do or use, some youngster is going to look at that and say, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ ”

As such, Craven said his baseball program may take a step toward being a healthier role model next season. He is considering banning tobacco products from the playing field.

“I think the medical evidence is too strong not to take a stand,” he said. “You know absolutely that using cocaine and drugs is bad for you. Well, they’re saying now if you use this stuff, your odds of getting a medical problem are increased, so we won’t use it.”

Craven called on national governing bodies, such as the NCAA, to implement similar bans.

“I would wonder why they wouldn’t,” Craven said.

Banning smokeless tobacco from the playing field would not necessarily stop his players from using the products, Craven said. In addition, enforcement of the policy could become a problem.

“If I were to say there is no tobacco use on the field, I know guys would use it right up to the time they step on the field and right when they step off the field,” he said.

“And if you do ban it, you’re going to have to have penalties. Warning doesn’t do the job. What is the penalty?”

A life, perhaps.