ETR Associates Publishes Research Supporting Smoking Bans in Tribal Casinos
ETR Associates staff members and researchers recently authored and published a study on the small proportions of actively-smoking patrons and high second hand smoke pollutants (PM2.5) in southern California tribal casinos; supporting the establishment of smoking bans or designated smoking areas in tribal casinos.
The research, published in the open-access journal Bio-Med Central Public Health entitled: "Small proportions of actively-smoking patrons and high PM2.5 levels in southern California tribal casinos: support for smoking bans or designated smoking areas" is based on data collected from 2008-2011. The data refute a misconception that the majority of people who go to tribal casinos smoke. The research showed that, on average, only 7% of patrons in 11 southern California casinos were actively smoking when observed during a visual survey. In other words, non-smoking patrons outnumbered actively-smoking patrons 13 to 1, on average. Fewer than roughly 10% of patrons smoked during any of the 22 total casino visits by the researchers (2 visits per casino). However, based on both new and previously-published air monitoring results, these individuals were found to substantially increase secondhand smoke particle exposures (PM2.5) for all patrons in smoking and unenclosed nonsmoking areas. Nonsmoking areas may be too inconvenient, small, or undesirable to serve a substantial number of nonsmoking patrons. Imposing indoor smoking bans, or contained smoking areas with a maximum capacity of up to 10% of the total patronage, would offer protection from exposure to toxic pollutants for nonsmoking patrons and reduce employee exposures.
ETR staff members working on the report include: Neil Klepeis, Jason Omoto, Seow Ling Ong, Narinder Dhaliwal and Harmeena Sahota Omoto.
To review this article, please visit: www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/819/abstract
For technical information about this article and research questions, please contact Dr. Neil Klepeis, Senior Research Associate, neilk@etr.org or 831-406-1014. For information on ETR's Clean Air Project and programmatic questions, please contact Narinder Dhaliwal, Project Director for the California Clean Air Project at narinderd@etr.org or 916-642-1186
