CNFR Friday: U.S. Smokeless scholarships spark debate
At the College National Finals Rodeo this week,
it's easy to get a free can or two of smokeless tobacco.
Stop by
the Copenhagen tent outside the Casper Events Center, fill out a survey
with your name and address, answer a couple questions about your chewing
habits, and you'll walk out with two free cans.
While that's not
unusual in the world of rodeo -- the Copenhagen representatives travel the
country passing out free samples at rodeos -- the scholarships
are.
Tonight, the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company will award
scholarships to the colleges of CNFR winners. Standing underneath a U.S.
Smokeless Tobacco banner, winners will receive three things: An engraved
saddle, a belt buckle and a check from UST.
The debate over tobacco use and influence
hasn't exactly divided rodeo. UST has been a long-time sponsor of the
sport and, in return, has been supported by cowboys for generations. But
as anti-tobacco groups grow stronger, they have started targeting one of
the few sports left with strong tobacco ties.
Rodeo representatives
say UST is supporting the rodeo athlete by giving the scholarships. They
point to the money figures -- $5.2 million in scholarships over 32 years,
and more than $200,000 in scholarships this year -- to validate that UST
is pouring money into education, not into promotion of its
product.
John Smith, the commissioner of the National
Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, compared his organization to the
NCAA.
"We're both dependent on outside sponsors, sources, to
exist," Smith said. "...Two years ago, I pulled it up on the web, and (the
NCAA) had received over $52 million from alcohol-related
industry.
"So who am I to be the judge and jury of what's proper
and what's not? What's killing more people, alcohol or tobacco?"
On
the other side, tobacco-prevention advocates are asking Smith and his ilk
to play judge and jury, to move away from tobacco sponsorships. And the
CNFR's scholarship program is one of the targets.
"We feel that
giving tobacco funding to college students is an incredibly cynical thing
to do," said Andrea Craig Dodge, director of the Oakland, Calif.-based
Buck Tobacco Sponsorship Project. "We're talking about healthy, young
athletes. I mean, it just does not match."
Lamar (Colo.) Community
College freshmen team ropers Tyler Lauridsen and Josh Fillmore have a shot
at a UST scholarship; they were sitting third in the standings after
Thursday night's performance. But they don't think much about UST's
presence at the rodeo this week. Smokeless tobacco has been a part of
their rodeoing lives for a long time.
Lauridsen said he's been
chewing tobacco since the sixth grade, and Fillmore said he chews "out of
habit." They both said they'd been to the smokeless tobacco tents at
rodeos before to take advantage of the free cans.
"I just couldn't
imagine not having that comfort (of chewing)," Lauridsen said.
The
team ropers estimated at least half the athletes at the CNFR chew tobacco.
The popularity of smokeless tobacco in rodeo is starting to reflect its
popularity in other areas.
Thanks to a combination of factors,
chewing tobacco use has actually grown in recent years. Smokeless tobacco
is the only tobacco sector to see an increase in profits recently, growing
about 4-6 percent per year, according to Andy Lee, UST's manager of
corporate communications.
"We're actually finding that many adult
smokers are actually switching to smokeless tobacco in the face of
increased smoking restrictions," Lee said.
But Dodge and other
anti-tobacco advocates think the increased popularity is a bad thing. Both
the Center for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute say
chewing tobacco is not a safe alternative to smoking tobacco. Studies such
as the NCI's "Smokeless Tobacco or Health: An International Perspective"
in 2002, have shown chewing tobacco has 28 carcinogens. It delivers three
to four times more nicotine than a cigarette and is linked with
leukoplakia, or lesions in the mouth that can become cancerous.
The
Buck Tobacco program started in 2002 and has targeted UST's sponsorship of
rodeo. The Jackson-based Through With Chew program is sponsored by the
Wyoming Department of Health and has targeted prevention and treatment for
chewers.
"There's this smokeless-equals-harmless, the kind of
perception that tobacco wanted to portray with that theme, that has really
caught on," said Niki Mueller, director of Through With Chew. "It never
was taken seriously. But the problem is getting worse and worse, so we had
to do something about it."
After getting your free can at the CNFR,
you can play some blackjack for a t-shirt.
And while the debate
over UST's presence at the rodeo grows, one thing is certain. Those free
cans of chewing tobacco, and the scholarships that are their extension,
aren't going away.
"I think most people understand that we're a
great partner of the (rodeo) organizations," Lee said. "We're just there
to support the sport, like everyone else that's there as
well."
Contact senior sports reporter Peter Hockaday at (307)
266-0596 or peter.hockaday@casperstartribune.net