American Gaming Association acknowledges 2006 Surgeon General’s Report

In summer 2006, the American Gaming Association was just going to press with its report, Indoor Air Quality and the Gaming Industry, in its AGA 10th Anniversary White Paper Series. That report conceded, “Undoubtedly, the most effective way to limit ETS [environmental tobacco smoke] levels would be to prohibit the use of tobacco products in gaming businesses.” (page 11), though it concluded:

If the industry is willing to invest the necessary effort in demonstrating that ventilation can protect employees and customers, it may be able to sustain these exemptions [such as the New Jersey exemption of casino gambling areas from the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act] over the long term. Without such an industrywide commitment and approach, the exemptions may be too fragile and too controversial to last.

Then on June 30, 2006, the new Surgeon General’s Report was issued. Therefore the AGA report, when published, included, as its first page, a Note to the Reader, which reported the conclusions of the Surgeon General that “any exposure to secondhand smoke is dangerous” and “the only way to adequately protect people from the extreme risks of secondhand smoke is to make indoor spaces smoke-free.”

The Note to the Reader concluded that “the industry may need to develop even more stringent IAQ [indoor air quality] controls than are suggested here” [in the AGA report].