Conflicting Death Tolls

Back in October I heard from the Missouri Restaurant Association about a study that predicted a huge death toll among Pennsylvania casino workers if the Pennsylvania legislature did not pass a smoking ban. The Missouri Restaurant Association seemed to feel that this study might affect the consideration of a smoking ban by the Kansas City Council that was then ongoing.

I did some checking and found that two very different death tolls were being floated by the Pennsylvania Alliance to Control Tobacco and ETS researcher James Repace in separate press releases issued three days apart. I sent a letter of warning to members of the Pennyslvania Senate and the Pennsylvania press:

Editor:

The Pennsylvannia Alliance to Control Tobacco and James Repace claim to have done a study of Pennsylvania casino indoor air quality the dire findings of which obligate Pennsylvania legislators to pass a strict smoking ban that includes casinos. Yet two PACT press releases three days apart report two hugely different sets of study findings. The first predicts 1771 Casino worker deaths over the next forty years without a smoking ban. The second only 300. The first say 44 casino workers will die each year. The second only 8. Which numbers are correct? Where do these numbers come from? Does this study really exist? Or are the numbers in these press releases simply being made up? Why is James Repace quoted reporting contradictory study findings in the two releases? The public has a right to review this study and get answers before casino legislation is further debated and voted on. Please look into this scandal.

October 15th PACT press release:“Twenty times OSHA’s Significant Risk Level will eventually kill 44 casino workers every year. This is comparable to the total number of deaths from coal mine disasters in 2006 – and we all appreciate that coal mining can be a dangerous job,” Repace said. “Working in a casino should be a safeway to make a living — except that secondhand smoke makes it a hazardous occupation."
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071015005969&newsLang=enOctober

18th PACT press release:"Twenty Seven times OSHA's Significant Risk Level will eventually kill 8 casino workers every year. By comparison, between 1995 and 2002, 16 miners died in Pennsylvania mine disasters, or about 2 per year. We appreciate that coal mining can be a dangerous job," Repace said. "Working in a casino should be a safe way to make a living - except that secondhand smoke makes it a hazardous occupation."
http://www.pactonline.org/docs/Casino%20News%20Release%20REVISED%20Oct%2015%20doc%20_4_.pdf

The following is an letter of warning concerning this PACT study I have sent to all members of the Pennsylvania Senate and House:



Senator Wozniak,

I am writing to warn you about a recent "study" conducted by Dr. James Repace and the Pennsylvania Alliance to Control Tobacco. The original press release announcing the results of this study predicted 1771 deaths of nonsmoking casino workers due to environmental tobacco smoke exposure in Pennsylvania casinos over the next 40 years. Astoundingly, three days later, PACT issued a press release which said the study predicted 300 deaths, nearly a five-fold decrease. Citizens have no access to the orignal study and have to wonder if such a study exists or are the numbers simply being made up? All citizens have are these competing press releases:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071015005969&newsLang=en
http://www.pactonline.org/docs/Casino%20News%20Release%20REVISED%20Oct%2015%20doc%20_4_.pdf

Whatever final number Dr. Repace and PACT finally decide on for a death toll, the press releases indicate that such numbers are based on stealth air quality tests performed at several Pennsylvania casinos. Senator, if these tests did indeed take place, they could only be performed by Dr. Repace using very inadequate equipment and under poor circumstances due to the furtive nature of the tests. Clearly these tests were conducted without the knowledge, permission or cooperation of casino authorities.Were casino filtration and ventilation systems even fully operational and employed to peak capacity at the times of the tests? We don't know. Dr. Repace's "tests" cannot be considered any measure of the efficacy of casino filtration and ventilation systems against enviromental tobacco smoke. Please reserve all judgement in this matter until Pennsylvania casino air can be tested in a professional manner with full cooperation of casino authorities.

Senator, properly conducted tests would likely exonerate fully ventilated and filtrated Pennsylvania casino air. In an example from another state, when rigorous tests were conducted on the air of the Bellagio casino in 1999 and 2005, the casino air was found to be as clean as the air outdoors or a smoke-free office building. Tests done at the Bellagio Casino found that RSP concentrations in its air ranged between 12 to 58 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3). Outdoor air that clean would receive one ofthe EPA's two best outdoor air quality ratings: Good or Moderate. Less than half of this RSP was found to be tobacco-related. Belagio Casino air is well within the range of 100 or fewer (ug/m3) of tobacco-related RSP that the 1986 World Health Organization guidelines said would be of "limited or no concern". Such air easily surpasses all of OSHA's workplace air quality standards. Legitimate air quality tests at Pennsylvania casinos might very well yeild similar results.
http://reason.com/blog/show/122606.htmlhttp://www.americangaming.org/assets/files/studies/FINAL_IAQ_WHITE_PAPER_7-7-06.pdf
http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9992
http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=24602

Senator, let me further ask you to fully investigate the ability of air filtration and air cleaning machines to purify the air not only of casinos but also mom and pop bars and restaurants. Air filtration companies assure me that they can get the air of any building in which smoking is permitted almost perfectly clean by installing redundant HEPA air cleaning and electronic air filtration machines. Many excellent companies offer commercial air filtration machines that are affordable and effective. These same machines currently protect Pennsylvania welders from much more dangerous smoke and fumes to OSHA air quality standards.
http://www.air-quality-eng.com/ambient.php
http://www.smokeeaters.org/welding/

As a public health bonus, such air purification machines would not only remove tobacco smoke, but also viruses, bacteria, chemicals, pollen, dust,mold, fungi and, most importantly, radon decay products, which the EPA claims causes 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year, seven times more than secondhand smoke is reputed to cause.
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/iec/abe/control/filtration.asphttp://www.hepalta.com/amaircare/air_we_breathe.htmlThehttp://www.hepalta.com/amaircare/air_we_breathe.htmlThe

CDC even advocates the installation of such machines in public buildings as a protection of workers and patrons against airborne chemical, biological and radiological attack.
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2003-136/

Senator, there can be little doubt that air filtration and air cleaning machines already render the air of all Pennsylvania entertainment venues far, far safer than OSHA requires and can meet any air quality standard the Pennsylvania Senate chooses to set. As a further benefit to public health, a filtration solution to the secondhand smoke problem would not displace smokers to poorly ventilated private homes and cars. Research has shown that this displacement actually causes the secondhand smoke exposure levels of children to rise in communities in which a smoking ban has been imposed. Really Senator, what good is a smoking ban if it causes children to breathe more secondhand smoke?
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=341192007
http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications.php?publication_id=3523

Please be wary of activists using junk science to strip Pennsylvania
citizens of their freedom and property rights. Thank you for considering the evidence that argues strongly against a Pennsylvania smoking ban and in favor of the continued freedoms and property rights of Pennsylvania citizens.

Sincerely,
Bill Hannegan

The Pittsburgh Business Times then contacted me and asked that I state my warning to their readers in a letter of 450 words or less. I sent this letter which they published:

Editor:
The Pennsylvania Alliance to Control Tobacco, and James Repace, a secondhand smoke researcher, claim to have done a study of Pennsylvania casino indoor air quality and its implication for the health of casino workers. PACT and Repace believe the dire findings of their study obligate Pennsylvania legislators to pass a strict all-inclusive indoor smoking ban, and should drive further public smoking restrictions across America. Yet two PACT press releases three days apart report two hugely different results from this same study. The first release, issued on October 15, predicts 1771 Pennsylvania casino worker deaths over the next forty years if no smoking ban is enacted. The second release, dated October 18th, predicts only 300 such deaths. The first says 44 casino workers will die each year due to secondhand smoke exposure without a ban. The second, only 8. Which numbers are correct? Where do these numbers come from? In fact, casino officials doubt that James Repace could have gotten testing equipment past casino security or employed it without the notice of the casinos’ comprehensive camera surveillance. Were tests actually conducted and does such a study exist? Or are the numbers in these press releases simply being made up?

Whatever final numbers Repace and PACT decide on for a death toll, the press releases both indicate that such numbers are based on stealth air quality tests performed at several Pennsylvania casinos. If these tests did indeed take place, it is likely they used very inadequate equipment under limited and furtive circumstances. Clearly these tests were conducted apart from the cooperation of casino authorities. Were casino filtration and ventilation systems even fully operational and employed to peak capacity at the times of the tests? We don't know. Repace's "tests"cannot be considered any measure of the efficacy of casino air filtration and ventilation systems against environmental tobacco smoke nor a measure of the general state of casino air. Judgment in this matter should be reserved until air quality tests can be conducted in a professional, open,and scientific manner with full cooperation of casino authorities.

Earlier tests commissioned by PACT and conducted by James Repace on the air of ordinary bars and restaurants in Pennsylvania have been used to push for strict smoking bans not only in Pennsylvania but all across the country. In light of the startling discrepancy in the reported results of their casino study, PACT should release all such tests and studies for critical public review and examination. Both large casinos and small mom and pop bars and restaurants everywhere feel greatly threatened by smoking bans. All public smoking laws that restrict their freedom and property rights must be justified by something more than slipshod, phantom science by press release.

Bill Hannegan

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/11/19/editorial2.html

Jacob Sullum of Reason Magazine picked up on all this to good effect:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/123266.html

James Repace, by the way, is the same fellow that Kurt Odenwald and Missouri GASP brought in back in the Spring of 2005 to convince the St. Louis County Council to pass a smoking ban.

All this also makes me question whether Kathy Drea of the American Lung Association actually ever tested the air of the Casino Queen. And if she did, why should we assume her numbers are right?