An anti-smoking nonprofit group is urging Pennsylvania lawmakers to eliminate the exemption for casinos in the state’s indoor smoking ban. Tobacco Free Allegheny supported its own cause last week at Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino, where it conducted a secondhand smoke experiment as part of a health fair at the casino.
A non-smoking Rivers casino employee was tested for carbon monoxide levels before and after his shift. Joyce Petrow, the COO of Tobacco Free Allegheny, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the employee blew a zero before the shift and an 11 after the shift—which she said it typical of a light smoker.
“We are urging the general public to contact their legislator to amend (the indoor smoking ban) law to extend it to casinos and bars, which currently have waivers,” Petrow told the newspaper. “But at this point I think it’s an uphill battle. It simply is a low priority, and I think other things are capturing legislators’ attention at the moment.”
An amendment to the anti-smoking law that would eliminate the exemptions is currently stuck in the state Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. Its sponsor, Rep. Stewart Greenleaf, said he hopes to reintroduce the bill in 2015.
“I fought to get the (2008 indoor smoking ban) passed,” Greenleaf told the Post-Gazette. “We’ve saved lives because we did make some concessions in areas of the gambling and liquor industries, which we wouldn’t have been able to overcome. I’m still trying to close those loopholes, but I don’t control the committee.”
