WASHINGTON -- Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, sent a letter Monday to commissioner Bud Selig calling on Major League Baseball to ban the use of ephedra.

Baltimore pitching prospect Steve Bechler died last week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a day after collapsing at spring training with heatstroke. A medical examiner said the death may have been linked to an ephedra-based diet pill, Xenadrine RFA-1.

While ephedra is banned by the NFL, the NCAA and the International Olympic Committee, use of the substance, which is available without prescription, is allowed in baseball.

"We urge Major League Baseball and other professional sports organizations to act now to protect athletes from the known and widely acknowledged hazards of ephedra, by banning the use of herbal supplements containing ephedra by baseball players in all training and professional sporting events,'' Consumers Union wrote.

In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, Consumers Union wrote that Bechler's death "should remind all consumers about the dangers'' of ephedra and "should serve as a clarion call to the FDA to immediately ban dietary supplements containing ephedra from the marketplace.''

The consumer group also wrote to the FDA in November 2002 to call for such a ban.

On Sunday, baseball players' union head Donald Fehr said that taking a stand on whether to ban the supplement would be premature at this time.

"You can't, it seems to me, draw any conclusions from this tragic event at the very least until we see what the toxicology reports show,'' he said. "We'll go from there, and if it's appropriate, obviously we'll take another hard look at the overall situation and see where it takes us.''