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A second Las Vegas Strip casino is being sued over allegations that the health of employees is being affected by second-hand smoke.
A suit seeking class action status to represent all affected workers was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by Wynn Las Vegas employee Kanie Kastroll against the casino resort and its parent company Wynn Resorts Ltd.
The suit was filed by law firms including KamberEdelson LLC of Chicago, which in July filed a similar suit against Harrah's Entertainment's Caesars Palace hotel-casino.
Attorneys for Harrah's and Caesars have not yet filed their answer to that complaint. That suit has also not completed the significant legal hurdle of being certified as a class action. . . .
The suit alleges exposure to smoke is causing eye irritation, coughing, sore throat, sneezing, shortness of breath, dizziness, wheezing, tightness in the chest, asthma, headache, nausea and ingestion of cancer-causing chemicals and toxins.
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The Nevada Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act has the Nevada State Division of Health preparing to strengthen penalties for the ban on smoking in bars.
Shortly after the Sept. 24 court ruling, health authorities began writing a "working draft" of proposed regulations for the Southern Nevada Health District. A copy of the draft rules obtained by the Business Press calls for penalties as severe as health permit revocation for taverns that fail to enforce the smoking ban.
Other proposed rules include a requirement for a "proprietor" of any "indoor place of employment," where smoking is prohibited, to "request" that those lighting up there "stop smoking immediately." . . .
The draft of regulations is still a work in progress and not ready for public input, spokeswoman Martha Framsted said.
"It is still a draft," she said. "It is not finalized and we are still getting input from the local health authorities, the Southern Nevada Health District, the Washoe County Health District and the Carson City Health and Human Services Division."
The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that a voter-approved ban on smoking in such places as schools and indoor places of employment was constitutional.
But the court held that the criminal sanctions could not be imposed because the language was vague.
Voters in 2006 approved a change in the law to ban smoking in such places as schools and indoor places of employment. But the law exempted gaming areas in casinos, stand-alone bars, strip clubs and brothels.
The passage was immediately challenged by businesses including Flamingo Paradise Gaming, Terrible’s Hotel and Casino, the Nevada Tavern Owners Association and Cardivan Corporation.
Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon ruled the law was unconstitutionally vague for criminal enforcement. But it survived the test for civil enforcement.
Chief Justice James Hardesty, who wrote the majority Supreme Court opinion, said the criminal portion of the law failed to provide sufficient notice of what conduct is prohibited and it allows for arbitrary enforcement.
He said it was unclear whether a business owner was required to stop somebody from smoking in these restricted places and whether the owner has to call the police if the person doesn’t stop.
A proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in Las Vegas Wednesday against Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Caesars Palace, alleging Caesars isn't doing enough to protect casino workers from second-hand tobacco smoke.
The lead plaintiff is Tomo Stephens, who says she was a blackjack dealer for about 20 years at Harrah's-owned Caesars on the Las Vegas Strip and quit her job June 16 on the advice of her doctor.
The federal lawsuit says pre-cancerous cells were found in her stomach and that over the years she was exposed to second-hand smoke causing irritation to her eyes, coughing, sore throat, shortness of breath, dizziness, wheezing or tightness in the chest, headache, nausea and ingestion of cancer-causing chemicals and toxins.
The lawsuit seeks to represent as a class all former, current and future Caesars employees exposed to unsafe levels of second-hand smoke.
The lawsuit alleges that while Las Vegas competitors such as the Bellagio and Palazzo have taken significant steps to deal with second-hand smoke, about all that Caesars has done is make some of its poker rooms smoke-free.
"Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, Caesars Palace has failed to protect the health and welfare of many of its employees who must perform their jobs while breathing in second-hand smoke," the suit charges.
Director of Corrections Howard Skolnik told the Nevada Indian Commission Wednesday he will make an exception to the prison system's new tobacco ban for American Indian religious ceremonies.
Those ceremonies, which conclude with participants smoking a ceremonial pipe, will be allowed to have the limited amount of tobacco needed to share the pipe.
Skolnik said he is aware that will cause some inmates to suddenly develop an interest in sweat lodge ceremonies just to get access to tobacco.
He banned tobacco products from the prison system, for inmates and staff, effective July 1.
“You'll have 100 inmates turn out for the sweat lodge because they can use tobacco there,” he said.
And he said he anticipates that other religious groups in the prison system will want to add a sweat lodge ceremony to their practices.
Gambling and tourism industry lobbyists succeeded Sunday in 11th-hour efforts to get the Nevada Assembly to endorse a partial rollback of a voter-approved ban on smoking in public places.
On a voice vote, the Assembly agreed to a conference committee plan to allow for smoking at some trade conventions. The plan is being grafted onto AB309, which deals with the crime of stalking.
Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said the amendment sought by the lobbyists seemed "touchy relative to germaneness" because AB309 is an anti-stalking bill but was found to be OK by the lawmakers' legal counsel.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), an arm of the Centers for Disease Control, has asked casinos to ban smoking to protect their workers.
The action was prompted by a new study showing significant levels of a tobacco-specific carcinogenic toxin in the urine of workers in three Nevada casinos, a study prompted by the request of Nevada casino workers for health evaluations of their workplaces.
At least one of those employees lost her job after making her request.
The study, known in bureaucratic parlance as a health hazard evaluation (HHE), was conducted among 124 workers in the Bally's, Paris and Caesars Palace casinos in Las Vegas. (The three casinos are all Harrah's properties.) . . .
Among findings:
"We found ETS components in the air. These components include nicotine, 4-vinyl pyridine, respirable dust, solanesol, benzene, toluene, p-dichloromethane, naphthalene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde."
"We found increased urinary levels of one ETS component during the work shift. This finding shows that these components were absorbed in [non-poker] casino dealers' bodies."
There were also findings favorable to the casinos' stance of supporting smoking over worker safety, but the presence of the toxins led to OSH asking the casinos to end smoking.
Terrie Price, a dealer at Caesars Palace for 25 years, was fired in 2005. She has filed a lawsuit against the company.
During the 25 years she worked as a Caesars Palace dealer, Terrie Price was one of a few vocal anti-smoking dissenters among thousands of largely silent casino workers. Price believes her efforts to force her employer to address secondhand smoke, even as a growing body of scientific research chronicled its dangers, cost her that job.
The release last week of the first federal study detailing the effects of secondhand smoke on Las Vegas casino employees — a study Price requested — vindicated those efforts, Price said.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health tracked more than 100 dealers at Bally’s, Paris Las Vegas and Caesars Palace during on-site visits in 2005 and 2006. Researchers found the dealers were exposed to airborne chemicals associated with secondhand smoke during their shifts, had increased levels of tobacco-specific carcinogens in their urine after their shifts, and reported a host of respiratory problems potentially triggered by workplace smoke.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said Price, 53.
Las Vegas casino dealers are exposed to a host of harmful chemicals through secondhand smoke while on the job, according to a new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study.
The study, the first to examine the effects of secondhand smoke in Las Vegas casinos, reported that the dealers had traces of a tobacco-specific carcinogen in their urine.
The results were drawn from 124 casino dealers at Bally’s, Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas who wore portable pumps that measured the level of tobacco smoke in the air during their shifts. In addition, 114 dealers submitted urine samples to the agency before and after their shifts.
The institute conducted research and interviewed workers during three on-site visits from July 2005 through January 2006.
Anti-smoking advocates hailed the results of the long-awaited study, which mirror previous government and privately funded research on secondhand smoke and are expected to provide ammunition to those pressuring the gaming industry to implement smoking bans. . . .
The institute’s report found that a majority of the 147 dealers who completed a separate health survey reported symptoms such as red or irritated eyes, a cough, stuffy nose, runny nose and headache. In total, 11 percent of the dealers studied, who did not work in poker rooms at the time, had been diagnosed with asthma, while 35 percent had symptoms suggestive of work-related asthma. Many poker rooms have voluntarily banned smoking.
“That strikes me as enormous,” considering that only about 7 percent of the national population suffers from asthmatic symptoms, said James Repace . . .
A spokesman for Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns the casinos at issue in the study, declined to comment on specific findings, saying the company is still reviewing the report.
In response to the smoking ban recommendation, spokesman Gary Thompson said the company would consider a nationwide smoking ban provided that it includes all gambling venues, such as racetracks and tribal casinos.
Tavern owners say the Nevada smoking ban has devastated their businesses by forcing layoffs and even causing some establishments to close. But a UNLV research study contradicts that claim and shows those businesses were not hurt by the ban.
When smokers can eat, then tend to drink and gamble more. It's a formula that Nevada tavern owners relied on to sustain their businesses. However, in 2006, voters took away the ability for patrons to smoke if a business serves food. Tavern owner Joe Wilcock says the smoking ban messed up the formula and dropped business about 20-percent. He says his drop in business has nothing to do with the economy.
"Absolutely not. Not between 2006 and 2007. We were having boom years," said Joe Wilcock, Brewery Bar & Grille.
UNLV Assistant Professor Nancy York tested that claim. She headed a team that gathered public data on all aspects of the tavern business before and after the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act went into effect.
"Preliminarily it certainly looks like it's more of the recession effects or something that happened before the law went into effect in December of 2006," said Nancy York, UNLV.
The Nevada Senate voted 16 to 5 on Friday to advance a measure that would soften a statewide smoking ban, putting the state on track to become the first in the nation to ease restrictions it had imposed on cigarette use in public spaces.
The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, which took effect in 2007, bans smoking in any indoor space where minors may be present and where food is served. The new bill, which now moves to the Assembly for consideration, would allow taverns that offer food to permit smoking if they bar people under 21 from entry.
Many taverns in Nevada have video poker slot machines that provide a significant source of revenue, but the Nevada Tavern Owners Association said gambling revenue had fallen considerably since they had to stop patrons from smoking. Smokers have decided to gamble at the local casinos instead because the law excluded casino floors from the ban . . .
Gambling revenues over all have plummeted in Nevada over the past year, down 18.1 percent in February versus February 2008, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
While a few cities, including Champaign and Urbana, Ill., and Friendship Heights, Md., have repealed smoking bans over the past decade, antismoking advocates said they knew of no statewide restrictions that had been eased or undone.
Over the objections of a senator who beat cancer, the Senate voted 14-5 Friday to advance a bill that would allow adults to smoke in bars that serve food.
The vote for Senate Bill 372, which is expected to be well received in the Assembly as well, was made over the pleas of Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, who said second-hand smoke could cause cancer in unsuspecting patrons. . . .
No public testimony was taken on the bill Friday because it was heard by the full Senate, but during an April 3 hearing, a line of bar and taverns owners said the smoking ban was responsible for the closing of 47 bars in Clark County and the loss of hundreds of jobs. They said profits are off 15 percent to 50 percent and their customer base has dropped by about 25 percent.
A Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority executive testified that the ban cost his organization $41 million in business because a cigar and a smokers' convention moved to New Orleans where patrons could smoke on the convention floor.
However, anti-smoking advocates said at the time that tavern and bar owners were ignoring the fact that the economy has gone into recession and many businesses have failed for reasons other than a smoking ban.
Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said Friday that legislators should read the bill before concluding that it defies the will of the voters.
"Bar and tavern owners, as well as customers, have expressed anger and confusion over the law since it was enacted," reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week.
Owners and customers. Is someone missing from that survey?
"I have to shower--really well, including shampooing--before my wife will let me into bed," says one Sparks Nugget dealer. . . .
"Tourists are in and out," said a Circus Circus worker. "I breathe that stuff all night."
Workers say the state anti-smoking law does them more good than it does customers, who are normally in a casino or restaurant for a relatively short time. Workers are there for a full shift--giving them extended exposure to involuntary inhalation of second-hand smoke.
Studies have shown that second-hand smoke can be a factor in asthma, heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome, cancer, stroke and premature death.
But extended exposure to second-hand smoke increases risks. . . .
In one unusual action, public officials opposed the law approved by the public. Officers of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority supported repealing the voter-approved law outright because it bars advertising tobacco products at trade shows as well as prohibits smoking at convention centers.
Casino workers declined to allow their names to be used in speaking for anti-smoking measures because their corporations are lobbying in the other direction. "I wouldn't have a job if they knew," one said. "I just hope the unions are taking this on."
Nevada AFL/CIO lobbyist Danny Thompson said his organization has not taken the issue on in part because it has not been pushed to do so by the membership and in part because members are on different sides of the issue.
The state Supreme Court dealt a blow to anti-smoking forces Monday when it declined to stop lawmakers from weakening Nevada's smoking ban.
"We are not persuaded that extraordinary intervention by this court is appropriate at this time," the court wrote in its ruling.
"We're just happy with the way everything's going right now," said Gene Hill, president of the Nevada Tavern Owners Association.
Last week, a Senate committee endorsed changing the ban, which was approved by voters and enacted in 2006.
.--The Nevada Supreme Court refused Monday to block legislative debate on a bill that would ease terms of a voter-approved measure that banned smoking in many bars and other public places.
The high court said its intervention isn't warranted because "no amendment to the current statute has occurred." Justices added that until the Legislature actually approves SB372, any action it takes in the case would be premature.
The bill was approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee but still must win full Senate approval and then move to the Assembly for final legislative action.
SB372 softens the 2006 Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act to allow smoking in bars that serve food as long as minors are restricted from entry. Also, businesses could wall off separately ventilated smoking rooms.