Combat to Shield Public Well being and Staff’ Rights Continues Regardless of Senate Obstruction
Des Moines, IA —Yesterday, a subcommittee of the Iowa Home of Representatives Committee on Commerce superior HF 781, a invoice to get rid of the exemption of gaming flooring from the state’s Smokefree Air Act. The invoice will now proceed to a full committee vote this afternoon.
“Thanks to Representatives Lundgren, Baeth, and Younger for making the commonsense determination to cross HF 781 out of subcommittee yesterday,” stated Traci Kennedy, Midwest States Strategist for Individuals for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR). “For greater than 15 years, Iowa’s smokefree legislation has ensured clear indoor air in most workplaces — however on line casino staff have been left behind. Iowa is likely one of the final states within the area that also forces on line casino staff to breathe secondhand smoke whereas on the job. 86% of Iowans are nonsmokers, and but casinos nonetheless cater to the opposite 14%. The truth that staff must endure poisonous secondhand smoke day in and day trip as a result of the on line casino trade insists upon a false narrative that smokefree insurance policies would hurt enterprise is deplorable. The one method for Iowa lawmakers to guard their residents is to cross HF 781 and shut the on line casino smoking loophole as soon as and for all. We urge the total Home Committee on Commerce to vote sure and cross the invoice to the total Home for consideration.”
Yesterday’s listening to within the Iowa Home of Representatives confirmed that smokefree casinos is gaining momentum with bipartisan help in Iowa and allowed legislators an opportunity to proper the Iowa Senate’s unsuitable from final week. On January 26, senators within the State Authorities subcommittee rejected SF 2051, persevering with the outdated apply of permitting smoking to permeate via on line casino air in Iowa. Regardless of insisting that “smoking is dangerous” and that it was an “absurdity” to depart casinos out of the unique Smokefree Air Act, Subcommittee Rating Member Senator Tony Bisignano voted in opposition to the invoice — a nonsense determination that flies within the face of public well being and staff’ rights.
Senator Bisignano serves on the board of administrators for Prairie Meadows on line casino in Des Moines, a on line casino that has perpetuated the false narrative that smokefree insurance policies hurt enterprise. This battle of curiosity was obvious throughout final week’s listening to, the place the senator superior deceptive arguments to help the on line casino trade’s lies about financial affect. Throughout the listening to, Senator Bisignano mentioned his concern over the “unborn baby” of a pregnant cocktail waitress he not too long ago witnessed working within the smoking part of an Iowa on line casino. Nevertheless, the senator went on to say that the waitress wished to maintain working within the smoking part as she made further suggestions there — thus propagating the false declare that on line casino staff profit from poisonous secondhand smoke.
Senator Bisignano ignores the truth that the waitress was given merely an phantasm of a selection. The truth that pregnant staff must breathe in poisonous air day in and day trip, placing themselves and their households in danger, all to make a dwelling is unacceptable. If Iowa’s on line casino trade applied a smokefree coverage, patrons would regulate their practices and staff would now not must make an inconceivable, doubtlessly deadly, selection.
It’s time for on line casino staff to lastly be represented within the state’s Smokefree Air Act and finish the outdated apply of sacrificing public well being and staff’ rights. ANR urges the Home Committee on Commerce to vote sure on HF 781 as we speak and to behave swiftly by calling for a full Iowa Home flooring vote on the invoice instantly.
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Individuals for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) sister group to ANR Basis, is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for 50 years to guard everybody’s proper to breathe unhazardous air in workplaces and public locations, from places of work and airplanes to eating places, bars, and casinos. ANR has constantly shined a light-weight on the tobacco trade’s interference with sound and life-saving public well being measures and efficiently protected 61% of the inhabitants with native or statewide smokefree office, restaurant, and bar legal guidelines. ANR goals to shut gaps in smokefree protections for staff in all workplaces, together with bars, music venues, casinos, and resorts. For extra info, please go to and https://smokefreecasinos.org.
See Iowa information protection
See what on line casino staff say about working in secondhand smoke: the Actual Deal
See what on line casino staff’ youngsters say about their mothers and dads who work in secondhand smoke: Children of CEASE
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