A spitting incident might have been enough to garner worldwide headlines and a public apology from Tiger Woods, but health experts say the argument that it also poses a health risk is not one worth dwelling on.
The golfing superstar caused an uproar last week when he spat on a green in a tournament in Dubai. He was fined by the European Tour and apologised on Twitter.
"The Euro Tour is right - it was inconsiderate to spit like that and I know better. Just wasn't thinking and want to say I'm sorry," Woods wrote.
Spitting on the sports field or other places where people can come into contact with the saliva and mucus raises a theoretical risk of transmitting bacteria and viruses.
"It's obviously not something that any of us like seeing people do, and you go back a few decades when tuberculosis was much more common - that was what was behind a lot of countries having rules against spitting in public," said New Zealand's director of public health, Dr Mark Jacobs.
"But ... if you're going to get an infectious disease on the sporting field, it's much more likely to happen in a ruck or maul than because someone spat on the grass.
"Even if someone is brewing an infectious disease which could be carried in someone's saliva, the fact they have spat on the grass is neither here nor there unless someone then comes into contact with it in a meaningful way."
Spitting directly on another person carried a greater risk of transmission.
But Dr Jacobs said hygiene messages around coughing and sneezing, and handwashing, were "much more important" than discouraging spitting.
Virologist Lance Jennings said it was sensible to discourage spitting because of the risk of transmitting the likes of meningococcal disease.
Tiger's spit not big risk: doctor
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