Is it time to ban smoking in all Iowa casinos?
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Hopes for anti-tobacco forces to ban smoking at the gambling floors of state-regulated casino were left smoldering Tuesday when a Senate subcommittee decided to delay action to gather more information.
Senate Study Bill 1107 seeks to lift the exemption from Iowa’s Clean Indoor Air Act that took effect July 1, 2008.
Dr. Richard Deming, a radiation oncologist who is medical director of the Mercy Cancer Center in Des Moines, told subcommittee members that “Iowa was on the forefront of forward-thinking” when the Legislature and former Gov. Chet Culver agreed to ban smoking in most public areas and workplaces – with the exception of gambling areas and the Iowa Veterans Home.
Deming said there are more than 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 heart attack deaths annually associated with the detrimental effects of second-hand smoke, as well as significant costs related to illnesses and employee absenteeism.
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Why do we need an all or nothing approach? Couldn’t the state mandate a non-smoking area in a casino that is truly separate from the smoking area and directly accessible without walking through the smoking area? That would be enough to satisfy me. I might even go to a casino.
Face it, the love of money is more important than people’s health.
Let the casinos decide if they want to allow smoking, smoking areas or no smoking at all. Furthermore, all private businesses should be allowed to decide this issue for themselves.
Second-hand smoke is a health hazard. If private business is allowed to “decide this issue for themselves” should they also be able to decide how sanitary is the preparation of their food or how adequate their exits are in case of fire ?
Soda pop and mickey d hamburgers are health hazards too, so they need to be banned. and if buisiness would decide how sanitary to keep their place, the people would have the right to choose not to go there if it was unsanitary. no one forces people to go where there is smoke. I dont even smoke any longer, but hey if someone wants to, it is fine with me.
True, food and drink have the potential to be health hazards however if one patron is eating a high-fat food another patron is not subject to that fat as they are by smoke from another patron smoking. In regard to choosing not to patronize a place that prepares food in unsanitary conditions, how would a potential patron determine the conditions, ask to see the kitchen ? Even if they did they would not have the qualifications of a professional inspector (nor are we responsible to inspect the meat we purchase a market for pathogens.) Your analogies don’t fit.
” . . . purchase at a . . . “
Ken, fast food can be consumed in moderate amounts and not have a negative impact on your health. When someone is eating fast food in my presence, there is absolutely no impact on my health at all. I could sit in a room filed with people eating triple bacon cheeseburgers, fries and soft drinks and it would have no impact on my health.
If I sit in a room filled with people smoking cigarettes, being a non-smoker, that second hand smoke has a greater negative effect on my health than it does the people who are smoking.
Futher consider, there are employees who must work 8 hour shifts exposed to the smoke filled casino and you have a situaton where regulations must be put into place to protect the workers. We would not allow workers to be exposed to any other carcinigen without well defined exposure limits. We should not allow workers to be exposed to this carcinigen.
Should have happened when the first smoking ban became law. The smoke is one of the main reasons I do not go to casinos. While they are at it, I wish the law on smoking within so many feet of the entrance would be enforced. I know one bar owner that is making smokers smoke in the rear of the building, out of sight from the main entrance. This happened after several people told him they would no longer come in after walking thru a haze of smoke and putting up with rude smokers that block the front door. He is also fed up with the butts and wrappers all over the entrance.
I don’t see why casinos should be treated differently from the corner tavern.
When this first came up several years ago the casinos weaseled an exemption from the law on the premise that it would fatally impact their level of patronage. That may or may not be true; but what is true is that by creating an exemption, it provides another incentive for smokers to visit the casinos instead of bars, and continues to present a health hazard to the casino floor workers. This inequity needs to be eliminated: casinos need to be smoke-free like every other public venue and privately-owner workplace in the state.
Forget about banning smoking at casinos. They have too many of our politicians in their back pockets.
Maybe it’s time to vote those politicians (most of whom are no doubt Republicans) at the next opportunity…
It was signed into law by Chet Culver and we did vote him out. Oops!
Why is it, some non smokers want to be treated like the handicap and have the government make everything accessible to them. It would be different if they actually had to go to a casino. You don’t want to be around smoke, no one forces you to go to a casino,
I agree you have a point. Not forced, but nearly everyone sometimes needs to patronize a grocery store, a doctors/dentists office, a restaurant (when traveling for example), a clothing store, a “Target store”, a workplace, and so on, whereas patronizing a casino, bar, or movie theater, is an option.
I also agree with you. I am a former smoker and I am particularly sensitive to second hand smoke. My position is real simple – I will not willingly expose myself to second hand smoke in any venue. If that means not going to a casino – so be it.
When I say i would like to see a well segregated non-smoking area at a casino I am only expressing my wishes.
FYI – when we permitted restaurants to have smoking and non-smoking sections, it was a joke since the two sections were often next to each other, with no barrier, and a non-smoker could still be directly exposed to second hand smoke.