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Government health officials will team up with minor league baseball as part of a new $36 million campaign to discourage rural teenagers from using chewing tobacco. Baseball stadiums will feature the campaign's central message this summer — "smokeless doesn't mean harmless" — via advertising and promotions with players. Ads will also run on local television, radio and online in 35 markets across the U.S., including cities in Michigan, Montana, South Carolina and Tennessee. (4/19)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is mounting a campaign to discourage teenagers from using smokeless tobacco. The anti-smokeless tobacco campaign will target white, male teenagers in rural areas, who are twice as likely as other teenagers to use products such as dip, chew and snus. The television ads will run in 35 rural markets around the country. (Devaney, 4/19)

There are just eight places that sell tobacco and/or e-cigarettes in Leawood, but they might soon find their clientele more restricted if this week’s positive reaction by City Council members to the Tobacco 21 initiative is any indication. For six months, a consortium of groups known as Healthy KC and led by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City has been pushing area municipalities to raise the minimum age for buying smoking products from 18 to 21. They say it would protect young people from nicotine addiction and improve health across the community. (Hellman, 4/19)