Casino Smoke Harming Restaurant Patrons In Nevada

The secondhand smoke debate has been heating up over the course of the past several years. Casinos in many states have successfully lobbied to be excluded from smoking bans, and because of that, restaurant patrons at these casinos have been put in harms way.

A new study from a professor at UNLV indicates that although smoking in the restaurants is prohibited, the casinos that are attached to many of these restaurants are transporting secondhand smoke to the eateries.

Nancy York, a nursing professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "It (smoke) does not just stay on the casino floors. The smoke is drifting, which is a normal phenomenon, into areas that are supposed to be nonsmoking. The only way to have a nonsmoking area is to be a nonsmoking building."

To conduct the test, air quality monitors were used to test casinos and the restaurants within the casinos. The outcome was that the air in the restaurants, although not as bad as the casinos, still had secondhand smoke pollution.

The Surgeon General has published the negative effects that secondhand smoke can have on individuals. "Casinos and states in the US have generally ignored the dangers of secondhand smoke because of the revenue that the casinos bring to the state," said Dr.Ingrid Jenkyl.

The study that was conducted by York was done with help from the University of Kentucky's public health department. Sixteen restaurants in Nevada were tested for the study.

January 11, 2009
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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