Cin, this might get the stinking smoking aroma away from you. It's an aroid plant. Man, this thing will take away any aroma, if you can stand it's aroma.
Just a suggestion.
Posted on 09/24/2002 4:22:36 PM PDT by SheLion
LAS VEGAS - Perhaps the biggest threat to growth in the U.S. casino industry comes not from antigambling interests, but from health-conscious public officials.
A group that sets the country's indoor air-quality standards is under "enormous" pressure to make casinos and other hospitality venues smoke-free, an expert warned attendees at the Global Gaming Expo on Thursday.
"With the collapse of the tobacco industry, (?) the hospitality industry is next to come under attack," said Elia Sterling, president of Theodor Sterling Associates, an indoor air-quality firm based in Vancouver, B.C.
If the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers, or ASHRAE, were to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for smoke particles, casinos could lose billions in revenue, according to legislative analyst Wayne Mehl of the American Gaming Association.
Forty percent to 50 percent of casino gamblers are smokers, about double the percentage of the U.S. population as a whole, Mehl said. A 1993 gaming-industry study showed that Nevada casinos alone would have lost $1 billion in revenue if casinos were forced to go smoke-free.
"It's not just the loss of customers, but also the loss of gambling time - 12 percent less time for smokers. They would spend that time going out for a smoke," Mehl said.
Of course the casino industry is concerned about the effects of second-hand smoke on its employees, Mehl said, but Thursday's panel discussion was all about the bottom line.
The industry will get a glimpse of the possible future beginning Nov. 27, when the three Delaware racetracks become the first casino jurisdiction to go smoke-free as part of a broader state law.
"There's a lot of talk about how much (gaming-tax) revenue the state will lose, and not only that, but jobs, too," said Don Johnson, deputy director of the Delaware State Lottery, which controls the racetrack slot-machine operations.
Delaware officials have been in touch with counterparts in Australia, where every gaming establishment was required to provide a smoke-free gaming area by Sept. 1. Johnson said he was told that the Australian smoking ban caused a sharp decrease in casino revenue initially but that business is beginning to recover.
At issue for U.S. casinos is ASHRAE Standard 62-1999, which governs how casinos, restaurants, bars and lounges filter and dilute their air to control tobacco particles, tobacco odor and body odor.
"It's intended to accommodate smoking in buildings," Sterling said. "This ASHRAE standard is a practical standard and is working well in the field."
For example, he said, the lavish Bellagio casino hotel here "provides better air quality indoors than you'll find outdoors."
Special interests, however, are aggressively pushing for standards so tight they "would effectively ban smoking in the hospitality industry," Sterling said.
ASHRAE (which conveniently rhymes with ashtray) is a 108-year-old non-government trade group of indoor-air specialists whose standards governance has been taken over by public funding and public officials, Sterling said. Today, the group's standards committee is chaired by an official from the Environmental Protection Agency and has only two representatives from the hospitality industry, he said.
"They're in the process of adopting a zero-tolerance approach to tobacco smoke. One molecule of tobacco smoke is unacceptable," Sterling said. "The debate is clearly not about health as it is about social engineering to denormalize smoking."
Matthew Iandoli, a Washington-based lobbyist and lawyer, said the Hospitality Coalition on Indoor Air Quality is trying to pre-empt the proposed new rules by adopting its own guidelines for smoke and ventilation. The group's members include the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, which represents more than 14,000 Atlantic City casino workers, and the Nevada Resort Association, which represents the gaming industry here.
Iandoli warned that any action, or non-action, by the hospitality industry could expose it to substantial legal damages.
"Trial lawyers are trying to find that avenue, trying to find that chink in the armor where they can pursue those class-action lawsuits," he said. "If the ASHRAE standard goes forward, that will be the point at which the lawyers will try to show that the casino industry has harmed its employees."
From the casinos' point of view, Mehl said, the "ideal" solution to shielding employees and customers from smoke is a combination of effective ventilation and smoke-free areas.
To e-mail Joe Weinert at The Press:
JWeinert@pressofac.com
Oh, for crying out loud. Get a life. This is almost as silly as the lady I heard ranting and raving about the box of gifts for her kids that she got from her father-in-law. She claimed that when she opened the box the 'smoke just rolled out.' This is just the ravings of an anti-smoking nazi.
The problem with the opponents in this debate is they are masters of the "Twist and Shout" form of debating. They also have the mixing of apples and oranges down to a science.
But do you support the right of the business owner to make his own decision based upon his clientele?
Cin, this might get the stinking smoking aroma away from you. It's an aroid plant. Man, this thing will take away any aroma, if you can stand it's aroma.
Just a suggestion.
Silly? Most smokers are not aware of how foul their odor is!
Neither are most people that don't bathe daily.
Gonna get the government to make a law that people have to bathe daily?
It's NOT a health hazard to a non-smoker. It's an annoyance.
Want to get the government to ban EVERYTHING that annoys you?
If so, you're NOT a conservative. You would be a totalitarian.
I have found that to be true on many subjects. And when you try to refocus them, they either don't respond or they attack you personally or try to associate you with some group whom they oppose and then villify that group. Pretty standard stuff.
WHHOooooo
Have you ever smelled Los Angeles on a Hot August morning?
I use Dial. No problem.
I was in LA last weekend. A hot September morning!
Most aren't deliberatly rude -- They just don't give a rip if they make others miserable with their sucking indulgence.
I ran into one last nite at a high-school cross-country meet. An ex-smoker myself, I don't fool around. I had his cigarette under my foot in less than ten seconds . . .
I was in Las Vegas a few months ago, and noticed very few smokers.
It is more than an annoyance. Sharing an office with a smoker irritated my throat, nose and lungs leading to coughing, sneezing, etc. My health WAS affected.
By Jennifer Fitzenberger The Fresno Bee
(Published Wednesday, September 25, 2002, 7:41 AM)
Smoke clouds the air inside the Beer Hunter bar, where patrons puff on cigarettes and tap ashes into empty popcorn tubs.
It's Monday night, and the usual crew has gathered at the Blackstone Avenue bar to unwind after a busy workday. The locals sip beers and chat in the glow of televisions airing NFL football.
In the back, on stools near the pool tables, two undercover Fresno police officers eye patrons violating the smoke-free workplace law. A phone call later, officers in marked vests enter the bar, and five smokers are cited.
Some patrons laugh. Some grumble. Some walk outside to light another cigarette.
"I'm sorry, I just think this is kind of stupid," Krissy Lowrie says as her friend Edward Pelkey is handed a citation.
The Fresno County District Attorney's Office later will contact the Beer Hunter's owner to discuss the violation. Police cite businesses after gathering evidence to show the owner knowingly allows smoking.
Police scout businesses at least once a week, thanks to a $300,000 state Department of Health Services, Tobacco Control Section grant received in October 2001. Nearly a year later, tobacco-law compliance is at an all-time high in Fresno, police say.
Fresno police made 131 visits to bars between January and June, says police detective Ken Dodd, who heads the tobacco enforcement effort.
About 30% of businesses police visited between January and March violated tobacco laws. Noncompliance dropped to 10% between April and June.
Under the grant, officers also try to curb tobacco sales to minors. Police perform decoy operations where 16-year-olds try to buy cigarettes.
Officers sent decoys into 278 stores in the first six months of 2002. Thirty of those businesses sold tobacco products to the teenagers. Only one store reoffended, Dodd says.
Police also make sure stores keep tobacco-product displays out of the public's reach.
Tobacco laws are "not something that they're winking at anymore," Dodd says of businesses.
But that wasn't always the case. In 1999, 65% of Fresno's stand-alone bars did not comply with the smoke-free law, according to a community coalition separate from the Police Department.
Some owners feared business would drop; others simply disagreed with the law and, on principle, refused to comply.
Smoking in bars and casinos was outlawed in January 1998. The ban is part of a 1995 law aimed at protecting employees from secondhand smoke, which has been linked to lung cancer, respiratory problems and other illnesses.
Early on, police had insufficient resources to enforce the law. Beat officers checked out complaints when they could, but other, more violent crimes often took priority.
"Unfortunately, they didn't have the time," Dodd says.
Between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 16, 1999, Fresno police didn't write a single citation, the community coalition reported. But, armed with grant money, police cited 76 patrons between January and August this year, Dodd says.
In the past four months, the Fresno County Sheriff's Department has issued 68 citations, Lt. Robert Hagler says. The department received a similar $221,000 tobacco law-enforcement grant from the state.
Patrons face up to an $86 fine for a first offense, $120 on the second. Business owners first face a $100 fine. They must pay $200 for a second violation, and the third is $500 or set at a judge's discretion.
Businesses convicted three times in one year can be reported to the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which can impose fines totaling $70,000, Dodd says. Fresno police never have referred a local business to OSHA.
"Our whole goal is not to go there," Dodd says. "We don't want a small businessman to incur those fines. We just want compliance with the law."
All citations are forwarded to the District Attorney's Office, which sends letters to business owners citing noncompliance, says Roger Wilson, a deputy district attorney in the Business Affairs Division.
Wilson talks with owners who contest a citation. If no agreement is reached, the case can go to trial. In such a case, Wilson might file a complaint also alleging unfair business practice. Judgments can total $2,500 per violation.
No case yet has gone to trial, but Wilson is researching allegations against seven businesses, two of which have a history of noncompliance.
"We're not out to hurt the business," he says. "We're out to coax businesses into compliance."
Fewer people are reporting violations to the Fresno County Tobacco Prevention Program, which educates the public and coordinates training, says Gloria Garcia, the project director and a health educator.
Last summer, the program received 70 to 100 calls a month alleging tobacco-law violations. In the past eight months, calls have dropped to about 10 a month.
"I truly believe the community already knows this law exists, but you have your die-hards out there who say it's their right to smoke," Garcia says.
Take Lisa Hiatt, daytime bar manager at the Beer Hunter on Blackstone. She passionately opposes the law, which she attributes to a drop in business.
On a busy day, the bar takes in $1,000 to $1,500, Hiatt says. When the bar was smoke free -- a period of about three to four months this year -- revenue totaled just $600 to $900.
That means fewer tips for Hiatt, a single mother of two children. "When they take my customers out of my bar, that is cutting into my livelihood," she says.
Hiatt also says it's tough for one bartender to monitor 50 to 70 people. They'll smoke anyway, and when they do, they'll toss their cigarette butts on the floor if no ashtrays are in sight.
Hiatt says bar owners should make their own smoking policies.
Police visited three other bars Monday night looking for smokers. They found no smokers inside World Sports Cafe, Elbow Room and Dakota Club.
"It's a lot more comfortable for our customers," says Sue Murray, manager of Elbow Room. "It's the law, and that's all there is to it."
A violation of tobacco-control laws can be reported by calling Fresno police at (559) 498-2121.
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