By Loretta Weinberg

Eighteen years ago, I was a sponsor of the Smoke-Free Air Act. With other legislators, I fought the powerful tobacco industry and the third-party advocates the industry manipulated and mobilized to fight smoking restrictions.

Unfortunately, we were unable to pass the Act unless we excluded casino workers from its protections. We simply did not have the votes, so we acquiesced, trying to protect as many people as possible while expecting to close this unjustified loophole in the near future.

I never imagined that nearly two decades later, casino workers and patrons would still be subjected to poisonous secondhand smoke. I know now that the tobacco industry used a calculated mix of fear and misinformation to convince owners, workers, and unions in the hospitality business that a smoking ban would devastate their livelihoods. That lie has cost lives.

Documents revealed during a lawsuit which states (including New Jersey) filed against the seven major tobacco companies are available online at the University of California, San Francisco. They show a coordinated campaign by Philip Morris and other tobacco interests to deceptively “cultivate” unions and workers to fight their battles for them, specifically — and successfully – targeting the hotel and restaurant workers union (known as UNITE HERE), which opposes a smoking ban in New Jersey casinos now.

The Surgeon General of the United States issued a report this year, “Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death,” which reveals exactly how the tobacco industry manipulated third-party actors — such as unions – through fear and misinformation, to lobby against their own health and safety.

Let that sink in: Workers and unions were led to fight against their own right to breathe clean air.

The tobacco interests were so successful in spreading that fear and misinformation that the restaurant and bar industry sued New Jersey when the Smoke-Free Air Act passed. That lawsuit failed, and because of it, many thousands of New Jersey workers and customers in our restaurants and bars have been saved from poisonous secondhand smoke. And guess what? Those businesses are thriving. The restaurant and bar industry employs 9% of the total N.J. workforce and contributes double the taxes of the casino industry.

The Surgeon General has also confirmed what we now know to be true: Smoke-free casinos are profitable.

We’ve seen it in the 21 states with thriving smoke-free casinos, including every state in our region except Connecticut and Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, the most successful casino is voluntarily smoke-free. And what does it tell you that five of the nine Atlantic City casinos are seeking licenses in smoke-free New York? It means that they know smoke-free is good business.

The devastating health effects of smoking are not in dispute. To quote the law we passed: “Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the State and nation.” Secondhand smoke causes cancer, heart disease, lung disease, strokes, preterm births, stillbirths, and miscarriages.

I read recently about a pregnant worker at Bally’s who was refused the simple accommodation – requested by her doctor – of working at a non-smoking gaming table, even though she had already suffered the unthinkable pain of three prior pregnancy losses. My heart broke. How can we tolerate this?

Gov. Murphy and Commissioner Kaitlan Baston of the Department of Health have been sued by casino workers who simply want to breathe clean air like every other worker in New Jersey. The governor and commissioner should not defend this injustice. They could – today — agree that casino workers (and patrons) deserve safety and health like everyone else under the New Jersey Constitution, which prohibits corporate favors and guarantees equal protection.

Or the Legislature could finally, quickly, end this long-running travesty because we now know the truth. Senator Joe Vitale and others have been fighting for casino workers for years. How many more workers have to suffer, get sick, or die before we act?

It is time to release the grip of the tobacco industry on the hearts and lungs of our family, friends, and neighbors. They are not the cost of doing business. They are not expendable. They are human beings who simply want the same safe workplace as everyone else.

Loretta Weinberg is the former Majority Leader of the New Jersey Senate. She retired in 2022.

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