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Letter to Gov. Paterson on Catskill Casino
November 19, 2010
The letter below was delivered to Gov. Paterson today from the American Cancer Society to express concern over reports that a proposed casino in the Catskills will include smoking areas, leaving workers and patrons exposed to deadly secondhand smoke.
By Hand
November 19, 2010
Honorable David Paterson
Governor
State of New York
Executive Chamber
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
Re: Gaming compact with the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Tribe
Dear Governor Paterson:
We write to express our deep disappointment with terms of the gaming compact media reports say you have negotiated with the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Tribe.
Secondhand tobacco smoke kills more than 50,000 Americans every year. New York’s groundbreaking Clean Indoor Air Law, by prohibiting smoking in worksites and public places, has reduced the threat of heart disease, respiratory symptoms and cancer to nonsmoking workers and customers.
We believe persons working in or patronizing a gaming facility are entitled to the same protection from deadly secondhand smoke that is available to them everywhere else in New York. If reports are correct, this agreement fails to protect thousands of workers or hundreds of thousands of casino patrons from secondhand smoke.
While New York does not apply its laws and regulations on Native American lands, your office can insist that the Mohicans abide by the smoking restrictions delineated in section 1399-o of the Public Health Law by including in the compact a stipulation that the Tribe’s regulations governing building, sanitary, health standards and fire safety shall be no less rigorous than current standards imposed by the State. This would mean, in effect, that smoking will be prohibited in all public areas and workspaces within the facility.
Reportedly the agreement states only that the Mohicans will maintain smoke-free environments within portions of the facility. Because it has been negotiated in secret, the public cannot know what the restrictions will be. In any case, it is clear that how much or how little workers and patrons are protected from secondhand smoke will be entirely up to the Tribe and facility management.
In 2003, New York recognized that such an arrangement protects no one and enacted the Clean Indoor Air Act. In 2006, confirming the wisdom of New York’s landmark law, the U.S. Surgeon General in a comprehensive report concluded that secondhand smoke causes cancer and heart disease in exposed nonsmokers and that “there is no risk-free level of exposure.” Research conducted by the New York State Health Department shows that the Clean Indoor Air Act caused a reduction in the incidence of heart attacks.
We believe the compact’s failure to meaningfully address smoking is backsliding and a bad deal for the health of New Yorkers. At a time when smoke free environments are becoming the norm all over the world, and New York is recognized as a leader in this death and disease-preventing movement, this agreement freezes in place the bad old days of smoke-filled rooms, subjecting the nonsmoking majority to the pollution generated by the small minority that still uses tobacco. There is not even a business justification for this loophole. New York’s smoke free racinos have been very successful.
Accordingly, unless you renegotiate this portion of the agreement to assure a smoke-free facility, we will urge the Legislature and the Federal Department of Interior to refuse to carve this loophole into the law, and we will continue to oppose any gaming compact that fails to protect New Yorkers from this serious health threat.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Sincerely,
Russell Sciandra
American Cancer Society
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