Key Bill Sponsor Cites Surgeon General’s Report on Second Hand Smoke
TRENTON – Senator Loretta Weinberg, a prime sponsor of New Jersey’s “Clean Indoor Air Act” legislation to ban smoking in restaurants and bars in New Jersey, issued the following statement regarding the need to move quickly on legislation that would extend the ban to casinos:
“Yesterday, a report from the U.S. Surgeon General underlined the need to protect all of New Jersey’s workers from the poison of second-hand smoke.
“The President’s Surgeon General concluded that second-hand smoke poses very serious, very real dangers to non-smoking adults, including lung cancer and cardiac arrest.
“The message sent by the Surgeon General should be heard loud and clear in the New Jersey State Legislature that we need to extend the protection against second-hand smoke to non-smoking patrons and employees in casinos.
“I am urging that legislation to do just that be moved in the Legislature as soon as possible, once we’ve gotten past the State’s budget crisis.
“We can no longer tolerate a double-standard, where casino workers and non-smoking patrons are put in harm’s way because of the lobbying strength of the industry.
“The Surgeon General’s report shows once and for all that the health impact of second-hand smoke is a reality.
“The debate is over. The science is clear.
“Second-hand smoke is not just a nuisance to be shrugged off by non-smokers, but a health risk that we must purge from all public places. We must act quickly, to remove the exemption from the ‘Clean Indoor Air Act’ that unfairly risks the health of casino workers and patrons by exposing them to toxic levels of second-hand smoke.”