ANR UPDATE, 24(4), Winter 2005
Remember Angie? She was a casino employee in Reno who had to quit her job because of secondhand smoke exposure. (See UPDATE Volume 23, Numbers 3&4, 2004) Now two more casino workers in Nevada, one diagnosed with cancer, have been fired for complaining about their exposure to tobacco smoke at work. Sadly, their situations are not unique. Other casino workers have contacted ANR with similar grim accounts. We are working with them on next steps.
This year ANR launched a national "Smokefree Casino Strikeforce," which includes scientists, advocates, and lawyers, in order to work more effectively to bring smokefree air to U.S. casinos. Casino workers' jobs should not carry a death sentence.
Casinos Are About More Than Gambling
Nevada casinos include some of the largest convention centers in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people go to these smoke-filled buildings annually for business meetings and events not related to casino games. Casinos seem to be so busy fighting smokefree air that they haven't noticed the world becoming smokefree around them.
Casinos Play a Numbers Game
Casinos play the odds. They calculate the risk of an employee or customer suing for secondhand smoke exposure and what the risk of a payout would be. Casinos are geared to fight legal battles, so individual suits against a casino can be prohibitively expensive.
Casino insiders tell us that a helpful approach for achieving smokefree casinos is simply for more nonsmokers to speak up and expect smokefree air. Most casino patrons are nonsmokers.
What you can do:
- Schedule meetings and vacations in smokefree cities, then be sure to let
the Visitors and Convention Bureaus in casino cities know why you are not
in their city.
- Before heading to a casino city, ask the Visitors and Convention Bureau
for a list of smokefree casinos, hotels, and restaurants. The more requests
they receive, the clearer it will become that there is strong market demand
for smokefree air.
- Let casinos know via comment cards and written notes that you expect smokefree
air. Ventilation systems do not address the health risks of secondhand smoke.
Gaming and smoke do not have to be connected, just as flying and smoke do
not have to be linked. Remind them that many cities and states in the U.S.
(and around the world) are now smokefree and that smokefree laws are working
well, even in those places with casinos.
- Urge friends and package tour groups heading to casino cities to provide written and verbal feedback in support of smokefree environments, reminding them that ventilation doesn't cut it.
This graph shows that thanks to secondhand smoke, the air in two typical
Nevada casinos is ten times more polluted than the outdoor air. The air pollution
even on a slow weekday night, with few smokers, was worse than EPA standards
for hazardous outdoor air. The study, led by researchers Andrew Hyland and James
Repace, was part of a pilot project by the ANR Foundation to train advocates
and health officials on how to conduct air quality tests.
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