Goals and Methods

New Jersey GASP is a 40-year old nonprofit organization; its mission is smoke-free air for nonsmokers and tobacco-free lives for children. The organization is recognized internationally as a leading resource for smoke-free policy initiatives. Our Tobacco Control Policy & Legal Resource Center provides technical assistance to legislators, policy makers, tobacco control advocates, the media, and the public-at-large.

NJ GASP conducts research on tobacco control issues, and creates and archives unique and much-needed information on the emerging issues of smoke-free casinos, multi-unit housing, foster homes and college housing, outdoor venues such as playgrounds, parks and beaches, and smoke-free cars when children are present.

GASP is funded by public and private grants, and membership donations. Our organization mission is focused around:

4 bullets here

• Smoke-free casinos
• Smoke-free housing
• Protecting children from tobacco marketing, sale use and exposure
• Tracking tobacco control legislation

SMOKEFREE CASINOS

NJ GASP’s board of trustees, staff and volunteers are focused on achieving 100% smoke-free air for casino workers and patrons at the Atlantic City casino gaming floors. In 2006, New Jersey enacted its statewide smoke-free air law, the Smoke-Free Air Act, but the law exempted the casino gaming floors in Atlantic City. Since then, NJ GASP educates state and local policymakers on the need to provide 100% smoke-free workplaces on the gaming floors, works cooperatively with casino workers and patrons, the casino dealers’ union and fellow advocates, and conducts targeted research on this issue.

NJ GASP’s website showcases the world’s largest collection of information on smoke-free gaming, including data on the health effects of casino workers from secondhand smoke exposure, the economics smoke-free gaming, air testing studies in casinos, and the history of the Atlantic City smoke-free casinos issue. We compile a list of jurisdictions around the world that enacted smoke-free gaming legislation and policies. New information is posted online on an as-needed basis.

Offline, we collect contact information for casinos workers, patrons, and interested parties, to build our database of advocates. Strategies for smoke-free casinos are planned with the Smokefree Casinos Coalition of Atlantic County (Atlantic Prevention Resources, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, casino workers, patrons and other colleagues), and with New Jersey Breathes, a statewide tobacco control coalition. New Jersey GASP staff held formal meetings with casino management, the Casino Control Commissioner and the president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, to present information in support of 100% smoke-free gaming.

In cooperation with Roswell Park Cancer Institute, NJ GASP conducts numerous air monitoring tests in all Atlantic City casinos. The air was tested in the smoking-prohibited nongaming and gaming areas, and in the smoking-permitted areas on the gaming floors. These tests were conducted: (1) before and during the government shutdown of the casinos in July 2006, (2) after the local Atlantic City ordinance created co-mingled smoking and nonsmoking areas on the gaming floors, and (3) during the temporary 100% smoke-free gaming floor period from October 15-November 15, 2008.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute analyzes this data and produces the reports. The first report was released at a New Jersey State House press conference on November 9, 2006. Media coverage included TV, radio, daily and non-daily newspapers. The next report on data collected in 2007 and 2008 will be released in the near future.

Since 2006, staff has presented technical information on creating smokefree casinos, to policymakers on the state and local levels, including to Atlantic City’s City Council which, in the past two years, passed three ordinances and one resolution, on smokefree gaming floors. NJ GASP attended and participated at Atlantic City’s City Council’s hearings, and Attorney Blumenfeld provided talking points on problems with the current Atlantic City ordinance, to City Council, the media, and fellow advocates.

When City Council passed its 100% smokefree gaming floors ordinance in April 2008 to take effect on October 15, Blumenfeld presented at the mayoral press conference for the signing, and was asked to draft proclamations of appreciation from the Atlantic City Council to be presented by then Mayor Evans to advocates and casino workers. The Atlantic City Health Officer accepted NJ GASP’s offer to write a letter of notice to the casinos about compliance with the 100% smokefree casinos ordinance, to help with the smooth transition.

To celebrate the October 15 effective date for Atlantic City’s smokefree casinos ordinance (which lasted just one month and reverted back to smoking, due to casino industry pressure), NJ GASP co-orchestrated a press conference with the UAW and coalition members. Blumenfeld strategized with the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority, on their marketing plan for smokefree casinos, as well as providing one-on-one help to the casinos, which created a smooth transition to smokefree casinos, while it lasted.

NJ GASP gave input on the coalition’s billboard for smokefree casinos, which was posted from September through November 2008 on the Atlantic City Expressway, in anticipation of, and during the smokefree casinos’ month.

Just weeks prior to the October 15 effective date of Atlantic City’s smokefree casino ordinance, some casinos asked for a year’s delay in implementation of the ordinance. On October 8, the City Council introduced and passed on first reading, an ordinance that delayed implementation of that ordinance. A second and final reading was necessary for adoption of the ordinance, which took place on October 27. In the meantime, the smokefree casinos ordinance that allowed for separately enclosed and ventilated smoking lounges, became effective October 15, and lasted until November 15. NJ GASP continues to work towards returning the gaming floors to 100% smokefree for workers and patrons, on the local and state levels.

A history of the Atlantic City smokefree gaming ordinances is posted on our website www.njgasp.org, along with links to the Atlantic City ordinances and resolutions. NJ GASP also posts new information on smokefree gaming on our website’s Action Alert and Gambling sections.

Our smokefree casinos work is being utilized and requested, not only in New Jersey, but nationally and overseas as well, to policymakers and tobacco control advocates in Connecticut, Michigan, Nevada, Omaha and other locales.

Blumenfeld has educated the United Auto Workers representatives who represent casino dealers at four Atlantic City casinos and the two Connecticut casinos, on the need for smokefree gaming workplaces. In Spring 2008, Blumenfeld testified before the Connecticut legislature on the smokefree tribal casinos bill, and also before the Pennsylvania Conference Committee on their smokefree air bill, requesting that no exemptions be made for bars and casinos. Two Connecticut Tribal Nations and UAW agreed to negotiate the issue, starting in November 2008.

Blumenfeld presented on smokefree casinos at the 1st Eastern European Gaming Summit in October 2008 in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the 2007 European Conference on Tobacco or Health in Basel, Switzerland, and at the 2007 National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Minneapolis. Blumenfeld is the co-chair of the Legal Issues sessions at the June 2009 National Conference on Tobacco or Health. Blumenfeld is also the lead advocate for the smokefree casinos resolution for the the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, which is expected to be discussed at its January 2009 winter meeting.

In May 2008, the Gaming Industry Observer published the second article authored by Blumenfeld on how to market smokefree casinos, and it was featured at the 2008 East Coast Gaming Congress in Atlantic City. Attorney Blumenfeld attended the annual November 2007 G2E Gaming Conference in Las Vegas, and made contact with colleagues who gathered information on smokefree gaming. NJ GASP staff participates in monthly conference calls of the casino task force sponsored by American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation of California with colleagues in many states.

NJ GASP partners with Weill Cornell Medical College and NY Presbyterian Hospital on FAMRI sponsored studies: (1) A biomarker study for secondhand smoke byproducts in Atlantic City casino workers; the data was collected and is now being analyzed by Weill Cornell. (2) We are coordinating with Weill Cornell and the United Auto Workers Union in Atlantic City and in Connecticut, to provide free lung cancer CAT scan screenings for casino workers that are exposed to secondhand smoke. NJ GASP is working to bring onboard a screening center in Atlantic City, so it is convenient for the casino workers, some of whom work several jobs and don’t have free time to go to New York City to get scanned.

NJ GASP also maintains a database of Atlantic City casino patrons and workers, who support 100% smokefree casinos.

SMOKE-FREE HOUSING

NJ GASP assists inquirers to protect them from the harm of secondhand smoke in their apartments and condominiums. Information on smokefree housing is researched and gathered on an ongoing basis, including health studies, policies, tenant leases, and legislation in New Jersey and other states. This information is used to update smokefree housing materials that NJ GASP sends to inquirers, including residents, landlords, management corporations, and condominium associations. There were 110 inquiries this year. Information is given by phone, fax, email, and mailing informational packets. Contacts were made and individual informational packets were also sent to health officers, inspectors, and health educators.

An attorney, who is a condo owner, called us for assistance to help him with the problem of tobacco smoke seepage in his condo unit. We sent him health studies, technical assistance on New Jersey nuisance laws, a study on air transfer in multi-unit buildings, court decisions that declared there is no constitutional right to smoke, court decisions in other states, and contact information for his the local health department. He was successful with winning a preliminary injunction against the smoker. This was the first Superior Court decision in favor of a nonsmoker in a multi-dwelling in New Jersey. We are partnering with him in giving technical assistance to other tenants and condo owners. He has generously donated his time, participated in conference calls and has shared lawsuit related documents.

NJ GASP staff participated in the Ancillary Training on Smokefree Housing at the 2007 National Conference on Tobacco or Health. Much information and methods were learned about the problems and solutions of secondhand smoke seepage in multi-dwelling buildings. Attorney Blumenfeld also participated in a conference in Ann Arbor on smokefree housing, sharing and gathering information on practical and legal solutions.

PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM TOBACCO MARKETING, SALES, USE AND EXPOSURE

The tobacco industry needs replacement customers, and the marketing, sales and use of tobacco focused on children is monitored. Emerging issues are the sale of candy cigarettes, flavored cigarettes, and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). There are some municipalities which have passed ordinances to ban the sale of candy cigarettes. The NJ bill banning certain flavored cigarettes, excluding menthol and clove, became law in December 2008, and is the first law of its kind in the nation. NJ signed into law a ban on the sale of e-cigarettes to people under 19 years old, the first law of its kind in the nation.

Smokefree homes and vehicles are vitally important for all children. Guidance is offered to legislators, multi-unit housing owners and tenants, groups and individuals to protect children from the harms of secondhand smoke, both indoors and outdoors. Legislation and policy is encouraged to make athletic fields, parks, playgrounds, and recreation areas smokefree. New Jersey has a regulation that requires resource family children to be in smokefree homes and cars when under the care of a resource family parent (foster care, etc). NJ GASP shares this regulation with advocates and policymakers in other jurisdictions, to encourage similar regulations.

Senator Lesniak asked for our assistance when he was planning to introduce a bill banning smoking in vehicles while children are present. The bill was introduced in January 2008 in the Senate. Contacts were made with Assembly members to find a sponsor for this bill. Assemblyman Scalera introduced the bill in the Assembly in May. Both bills have been referred to the Health Committees.

NJ GASP publishes “Smokefree Vehicles When Children Are Present” and “Protecting Children from Secondhand Smoke in Foster Homes and Cars”; both are updated frequently with new and pending laws, scientific research, polls, legal rights for children, etc. The documents are shared with colleagues, policy decision makers, other states, and around the world, and are available on the New Jersey GASP website.

TRACKING TOBACCO CONTROL LEGISLATION

Staff tracks all proposed legislation at the federal, state, and municipal level. Technical information is offered to legislators in preparation of tobacco control bills. Interested individuals and New Jersey GASP members are notified of state and local legislation. A library is maintained of all state and municipal legislation. Laws are analyzed and entered in the legislative section of the New Jersey GASP website. Municipal laws are maintained by GASP in a reportable database.

Our website provides guidance on the implementation and enforcement of the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, as well as other New Jersey state and local legislation on the marketing, sales and use of tobacco. Information is shared with state legislators, the NJ Department of Health, mayors, boards of health, health officers and educators, decision makers, and individuals. Research papers and studies relating to the laws are also found on the GASP website.