Health advocates ask casinos to go smoke-free

DES MOINES – Anti-smoking forces are asking state-regulated casinos in Iowa to go smoke free on Nov. 17 as part of the Great American Smoke Out effort, but industry officials say Wednesday's call by health advocates is not likely to ignite a positive response.

Leading health advocates in Iowa said their call for a smoke-free day at Iowa gambling facilities was in line with Gov. Terry Branstad's effort to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation and to ensure clean air for employees who work in state-licensed casinos that are the only public workspace in the state where smoking is still allowed under an exemption to the 2008 Smoke-Free Air Act.

Officials with the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and American Cancer Society announced Wednesday there were joining together and asking all nontribal casinos in Iowa to go smoke free on the Nov. 17 Great American Smoke Out day.

“If we want to be the leader and the healthiest state, we need to offer a smoke-free workplace for the 9,241 casino employees in Iowa,” said Stacy Frelund, government relations director for the American Heart Association.

Second-hand smoke ranks as the nation's third-leading preventable cause of death, she noted. With Iowa's commercial casinos being collectively the largest tourist attraction in the state with more than 22.6 million visitors per year, Frelund said the impact of all of the state-regulated racetrack-casinos and riverboats going smoke free for the day “would be astounding and a positive health message” to Iowa residents and visitors to the state.

Wes Ehrecke of the Iowa Gaming Association said the issue would be discussed at the association's board meeting this week but he doubted the member casinos would participate in the “smoke-out” observance, noting that the casinos already provide filtration and ventilation systems to accommodate both smokers and nonsmokers in their facilities.

“We try to be very proactive with a smoke-free area on our gaming floors,” Ehrecke said. “It's a freedom issue where adults should be able to make adult decisions in adult venues.”

Ehrecke said he expected anti-smoking activists again would push for legislation during the upcoming 2012 session of the Iowa General Assembly to strike the exemption provided for casinos in the 2008 law change – a proposal he warned could cut revenue by up to 30 percent at state-licensed casinos by putting them at a competitive disadvantage with tribal casinos at a time when they have made significant investment in a flat economy to maintain premiere entertainment destinations that generate tax income for the state and local nonprofit groups.

“Should a casino decide to go smoke free on November 17, we will be there, supporting the patrons and workers,” said Micki Sandquist, executive director of the American Lung Association.

Peggy Huppert, Iowa director of government relations for the American Cancer Society said the effects of going smoke free have been positive, noting that hospital admissions due to tobacco use have done down 24 percent over the past three years that the clean air legislation has been in effect. “It's time to see those same positive effects with casino workers,” she said in a statement.