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By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
TRENTON – After a bill to ban smoking in Atlantic City casinos was removed from the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee agenda Thursday, Dec. 14, the bill’s co-sponsor, NJ Sen. Vince Polistina (R-02), said he would propose a new bill to eliminate casino workers from exposure to second-hand smoke. The bill as written did not have enough support to pass the committee but may be heard in the next legislative session.
“It is disappointing that after two years of advocating and building support with our colleagues, we still do not have the necessary support in the legislature to get a full smoking ban passed,” Polistina said in a release.
The casino employee advocacy group C.E.A.S.E. (Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects, has mounted an aggressive campaign to free casino workers from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. On the flip side, the casino industry believes banning smoking will have a negative effect on revenue and taxes they pay to support the economy of Atlantic City.
According to a synopsis of the bill, current law prohibits smoking in most indoor public places and workplaces, with certain exceptions, including indoor public places and workplaces, at casinos and casino simulcasting facilities and accessible to the public for wagering. Senate Bill 264 would have eliminated the exceptions from the smoking ban.
The bill notes that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that casino workers are at greater risk for lung and heart disease because of secondhand smoke, and a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that the air in casinos can have up to 50 times more cancer causing particles than the air on rush-hour highways.
“The casinos believe that they can meet our goal of eliminating employee and patron exposure to second-hand smoke with a structured plan and additional capital investment into their properties over the next couple of years. Given that their concerns about potential job loss and closures have resonated with some lawmakers, this is the direction I believe we need to go so that we don’t lose momentum on this issue,” Polistina said.
He said he would introduce a new compromise bill that will address concerns of the casino industry and labor leaders but still protect the city’s casino employees.
Polistina said major components of the new bill will include eliminating smoking at table games; a gradual reduction of smoking at slots with minimum distances where slots can be located from table games over an 18 month period; a stricter plan for additional capital investment over an 18-month period to construct areas that would allow smoking; and a provision that would require employees to volunteer to work in the areas.
If enacted in early 2024, the measure would result in no smoking on the casino floor by the fall of 2025.
The compromise bill would “strike a balance between the goal of protecting workers’ health and the concerns of an industry that is important to our region and state,” he said.
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