Utah man wants to end tobacco presence at state fair rodeo
By Mark Thiessen - The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah man says it's not only irresponsible, it's hypocritical for the state of Utah to preach the dangers of tobacco to
children but then allow a smokeless tobacco company to have a presence at the Utah State Fair rodeo.
"Who do you think's going to be there?" asked cowboy Ted Hallisey, a child advocate, former rodeo competitor and executive director of the Kane County Office of Tourism and Film Commission.
"It's going to be a bunch of families and kids, and they're still seeing this tobacco message, they're hearing it over the loud speaker," he said.
But fair officials counter the only presence U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., which claims to be the leading producer of the only growing segment of the industry -- moist smokeless tobacco -- will have is a tent near the arena. Children under 18 won't be allowed inside.
No samples of snuff or chew will be distributed inside the tent during the four-day rodeo from Sept. 8-11, fair spokeswoman Denise Stanger said. The company also will not advertise at the arena.
U.S Smokeless Tobacco pays the Utah State Fair $700 to be a sponsor of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association event. "Would Smokeless Tobacco's sponsorship, if you will, make or break us? Absolutely not," Stanger said.
"But we do like to keep that relationship because of the national sponsorship with the PRCA."
While state funds go to support the Utah-owned Fair Park, the fair itself is self-supporting, she said.
"I don't think the issue is with us. I think it's with the state," U.S. Smokeless Tobacco spokesman Mike Bazinet said.
"We are very stringent in how we conduct all our activities. We conduct ourselves with the letter and spirit of the law," he said.
The PRCA didn't respond to an interview request.
The state of Utah spends about $10 million annually on smoking cessation programs. Part of that ($4 million last year) came from money the state receives from the 1998 settlement with big tobacco companies. Utah is expected to receive $836 million over 25 years of the agreement.
Hallisey says it's wrong for the state to take those settlement funds when it accepts money from U.S. Smokeless Tobacco for the fair.
Stanger says another Utah State Fair sponsor is the Phoenix Alliance, Utah's teen anti-tobacco advocacy group.
"We really don't support taking money from an industry that kills 440,000 people a year," said Lena Dibble, spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Health's tobacco prevention and control program. "We are actually working with the state fair through the Phoenix Alliance, creating smoke-free areas at the park."
One of those areas will be the rodeo arena. "Progress has been made," Dibble said.
Utah already has the lowest smoking rate in the nation, and last year became the first state to meet federal guidelines of reducing the smoking rate to about one in eight adults -- or 12 percent. The national rate was 22.1 percent in 2003, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State health officials say that in 2001, 8.3 percent of Utah high school students smoked, while 3.8 percent used chewing tobacco. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids put the chewing tobacco figure at 4.9 percent.
"We're trying to get out there and let people know spit tobacco is not a safe alternative," Hallisey said. "Your lungs will start to repair themselves after you quit smoking, but the membranes in your mouth will not repair themselves after they get lesions."
Think of the Marlboro Man and Hallisey says you see the problem is fighting the ingrained culture of cowboys and their use of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, he said.
"We want to get out there and show kids you don't have to use tobacco to be considered a cowboy," Hallisey said.
Hallisey isn't only upset with the Utah State Fair. He thinks the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association should sever its 20-year-old relationship with sponsor U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. Bazinet declined to discuss the status of contract negotiations.
"I think it's wrong to have this kind of advertising any place you have family and kids," said Victoria Almquist, outreach manager for the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "It's wrong, and it sends a very wrong message."
Both Almquist and Hallisey contend having the pro rodeo association drop tobacco advertising wouldn't cause the organization financial troubles, and point to the success NASCAR has had in the last few years after replacing Winston with Nextel as its cup sponsor.
"You can grow your sport by making it more family-friendly, and NASCAR is perfect proof," Hallisey said.