Friday, February 09, 2007

Gamblers heading to the nonsmoking sections of Lincoln Park and Newport
Grand might not be escaping the smoke after all. A study commissioned by a
New Jersey antismoking group shows significant levels of pollutants in the
nonsmoking sections of the two gambling halls. At Lincoln Park, the
nonsmoking area was found to be 39 percent as polluted as the track's
smoking section. At Newport Grand, the pollutant levels were 17 to 37
percent of the levels in the smoking section. The New Jersey Group Against
Smoking Pollution (GASP) has been pushing to get Atlantic City to ban
smoking in its 12 casinos. The City Council there had initially contemplated
an absolute ban but recently moved to a plan where smoking would be
prohibited in 75 percent of the gambling space. The antismoking group
conducted testing in Rhode Island as part of an effort to build their case
that nonsmoking sections do not protect nonsmokers. They also found that the
smoking sections of Rhode Island's two gambling halls had heavy
concentrations of smoke. "How dismal that the separately walled and
ventilated nonsmoking sections are still one-third as polluted as the
extra-polluted smoking sections," Regina Carlson, executive director of GASP
said in a statement. "Clearly, at least in Rhode Island casinos, this
so-called solution doesn't work." "Bottom line, the only way to protect
employees and patrons is to make casinos smoke free," she said.
When Rhode Island banned smoking in all indoor public spaces on March 1,
2005, lawmakers made two exemptions. Lincoln Park and Newport Grand could
allow smoking as long as they also provided nonsmoking sections. New Jersey
also exempted Atlantic City's casinos from its smoking ban, but the City
council is about to set its own restrictions. A vote on that partial ban is
scheduled for Wednesday. Rhode Island originally prohibited its cities and
towns from enacting ordinances that were more restrictive than the state
law. But that so-called preemption clause expired in October. Lincoln and
Newport could now theoretically ban smoking in their gambling halls,
although there has been no move to do so. Lincoln Park and Newport Grand
spokeswomen both dismissed the findings of the tests done for GASP by the
Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Spokesmen Both said they had not even been
aware the testing was done. "We don't know where they tested. We don't know
how they tested," said Lincoln Park spokeswoman Cynthia Stern. She said the
track routinely does its own testing, hiring an outside environmental firm
with testing taking one to two weeks. The Roswell Park Cancer Institute
tested at both facilities from Jan. 26 through Jan. 29.

Amy Kempe, spokeswoman for Newport Grand, said "it's difficult to respond to
the results without knowing under what circumstances the testing was
conducted nor how those results compare to industry standards."

"The comfort and safety of our patrons is our first priority, Kempe added.
"We welcome the opportunity to meet with GASP so they can share with us
their results and we can take a look at how we can improve under their
standards."

Newport Grand did notice a situation where smoke was traveling down an
escalator from the smoking to the nonsmoking areas and is taking action to
fix it. As part of a planned expansion and renovation, the ventilation
systems will be upgraded further.

At Lincoln Park, Stern said continuing construction has hurt air flow. She
said that a new addition soon to open will include "state-of-the-art
ventilation" and fix any air-quality problems.