Pennsylvania Casinos Could Go Smokeless If New Legislation Becomes Law
Posted on: February 13, 2020, 12:16h.
Last updated on: February 13, 2020, 01:35h.
Pennsylvania casinos allow patrons to light up while gambling in certain designated areas. But one state lawmaker says it’s time to end that loophole.
Pittsburgh area Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Squirrel Hill) introduced House Bill 2298 this week, an act to amend the Clean Indoor Air Act. Frankel’s legislation would ban smoking in all indoor public spaces, as well as at outdoor stadiums.
It’s a no-brainer for all workplaces and indoor public spaces to be smoke-free,” Frankel said. “From a public health, economic and social perspective, HB2298 ensures clean indoor air is not only for some workers or some establishments.”
Pennsylvania passed its Clean Indoor Air Act in 2008. The law banned smoking in indoor public places and workplaces, but provided certain exemptions. Loopholes were given to casinos, cigar lounges, private clubs, and drinking establishments where alcohol – not food – is responsible for the majority of sales.
Smoking and Gambling
Pennsylvania has 12 casinos, and that number will expand in the coming years with four satellite venues and the Live! Casino Philadelphia. Currently, the dozen of brick-and-mortar gambling venues all have designated smoking areas.
Under the Clear Indoor Air Act, up to 50 percent of a casino’s gaming space can be designated for smoking. There are 1,866 establishments that have received smoking exemptions, prompting the American Lung Association to hand Pennsylvania a “D” in its annual report card.
Of course, smoking and casinos have long enjoyed a close relationship. Smoking bans in certain states have been blamed for declining casino revenues.
Penn National, the oldest gaming operator in the Keystone State, supports the 50/50 split.
“Smoking has always been allowed at Pennsylvania’s casinos,” said Penn National VP of Public Affairs and Government Relations Jeff Morris. “We strive to be a leader in this highly competitive business environment, and this is only obtainable when we can compete on a level playing field.”
Morris says the company’s Hollywood Casino uses an air filtration system to keep its indoor air quality high.
Secondhand Smoke
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 17 percent of all Pennsylvanians regularly smoke. That’s down from 22.4 percent in 2012. Smoke-related lung problems were responsible for 22,000 deaths in Pennsylvania last year alone.
The Center for Disease Control says secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic and 70 with the ability to cause cancer.
There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. It causes respiratory infections, ear infections, and more frequent and severe asthma in children, as well as stroke, lung cancer, and coronary heart disease in adults,” the CDC reports.
The CDC says secondhand smoke causes nearly 34,000 premature deaths annually. Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work have a 25-30 percent elevated risk of developing heart disease.
The public health institute adds that inhaling secondhand smoke has “immediate adverse effects on your blood and blood vessels, increasing the risk of having a heart attack.” Secondhand smoke causes more than 7,300 lung cancer deaths among US nonsmokers each year.
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Last Comments ( 3 )
We need to act on this now especially with Covid-19!
(Edited & refrences added!) The bedrock for PA's ban is the 1993 EPA study that found less than 1 extra cancer per thousand nonsmoking worker lifetimes of exposure in poorly ventilated 1940s-'70s "MAD MEN" type smokey work conditions. To be exact, the EPA found a 19% increase over a 00.3% base rate(i.e. three cases/thousand nonexposed nonsmokers -- EPA & American Cancer Society refs footnoted below). The rate for such workers exposed to 80,000 hours of lifetime work smoke would thus go up to 00.36% -- an increase of 00.06%: Instead of finding 30 cancers among 10,000 workers, there'd be 36. So if there are 10,000 PA full-time gaming floor casino workers with 2,000 in the smoking sections for 40 years straight we would see about 1 extra future cancer per year among those 10K workers. Even that 1 might disappear if we allowed for medical advances and accounted for today's ventilation/filtration technology advances over MAD MEN era offices. In reality of course, current workers likely have an atmosphere only 20% or so as smokey as in those old conditions... which means only ONE EXTRA CASE OF CANCER EVERY FIVE YEARS, 20 to 40 YEARS IN THE FUTURE, under present conditions with NO advances made at all! Yes, avoiding one possible extra death in PA's workforce every five years would be a worthwhile goal: but two other factors come in: 1) The job losses from the ban would likely produce income losses translating into ten or twenty times as many deaths. and 2) Even this very VERY small chance of an extra death would disappear if the EPA used NORMAL statistical procedures. Their study failed at that level so they "moved the goal post" and DOUBLED their error margin! The bottom line is that the "Threat To Workers" is simply being used as a gaming device itself to push the Great American Antismoking Crusade one step closer to its final goal of eradicating smoking and smokers from the face of the Earth. - MJM, not a fan of Crusaders OR Liars... References: EPA Report: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-09/documents/passive_smoke.pdf ACS Report: https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/164/12/1233/76936
The bedrock for PA's ban is the 1993 EPA study that found less than 1 extra cancer per thousand nonsmoking worker lifetimes of exposure in poorly ventilated 1940s-'70s "MAD MEN" type smokey work conditions. To be exact, the EPA found a 19% increase over a 00.3% base rate(i.e. three cases/thousand nonexposed nonsmokers -- EPA & American Cancer Society refs footnoted below). The rate for such workers exposed to 80,000 hours of lifetime work smoke would thus go up to 00.36% -- an increase of 00.06%: Instead of finding 30 cancers among 10,000 workers, there'd be 36. So if there are 10,000 PA full-time gaming floor casino workers with 2,000 in the smoking sections for 40 years straight we would see about 1 extra future cancer per year among those 10K workers. Even that 1 might disappear if we allowed for medical advances and accounted for today's ventilation/filtration technology advances over MAD MEN era offices. In reality of course, current workers likely have an atmosphere only 20% or so as smokey as in those old conditions... which means only ONE EXTRA CASE OF CANCER EVERY FIVE YEARS, 20 to 40 YEARS IN THE FUTURE, under present conditions with NO advances made at all! Yes, avoiding one possible extra death in PA's workforce every five years would be a worthwhile goal: but two other factors come in: 1) The job losses from the ban would likely produce income losses translating into ten or twenty times as many deaths. and 2) Even this very VERY small chance of an extra death would disappear if the EPA used NORMAL statistical procedures. Their study failed at that level so they "moved the goal post" and DOUBLED their error margin! The bottom line is that the "Threat To Workers" is simply being used as a gaming device itself to push the Great American Antismoking Crusade one step closer to its final goal of eradicating smoking and smokers from the face of the Earth. - MJM, not a fan of Crusaders OR Liars...