Secondhand Smoke and Casino Dealers

PHOTO:  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Casino dealers at three Las Vegas Strip Casinos, Paris, Bally's and Caesars were tested for secondhand smoke exposure.  Urine tests and air testing prove the air is causing serious harm to workers' health. 

Simply working in a casino does not mean dealers must gamble with their health. There is nothing lucky about developing a respiratory illness, lung cancer, or heart disease—especially if you are a healthy nonsmoker. Results of new research conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on secondhand smoke—the exposure of non-smokers to tobacco smoke—confirm that dealers at the casinos investigated were exposed to secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke, also called environmental tobacco smoke, is a combination of smoke given off by the burning end of a tobacco product and the smoke exhaled by the smoker. Secondhand smoke is made up of approximately 4,000 chemicals, of which about 40 are known to cause cancers.

For more info on the NIOSH report:

http://ohsonline.com/articles/2009/05/07/niosh-report-recommends-eliminating-tobacco.aspx