The effort to make New Jersey casinos smokefree is seeing a renewed push after reports that a pregnant Bally’s employee was denied protection from secondhand smoke. Nonprofit groups backing the ban have called on the state’s First Lady, Tammy Murphy, to use her voice to protect workers, especially those who are pregnant.
Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE) and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) have asked Murphy to user her voice to help protect Atlantic City casino workers.
Nicole Vitola, CEASE co-founder and a table games dealer, penned a letter to Murphy earlier this week talking about the importance of CEASE’s mission to ban smoking inside Atlantic City casinos. ANR penned a similar request to Murphy.
The letter comes days after Bally’s Casino in Atlantic City declined to accommodate the request of a woman, four-and-a-half months pregnant, to work in a non-smoking section.
In the letter Vitola shared some of her experiences as a table games dealer during two pregnancies.
Pressure on Murphy to getting smoking banned at AC casinos
Tammy Murphy has quite the platform as the First Lady in New Jersey. CEASE and Vitola reached out to Murphy as a potential resource to help ban smoking in Atlantic City casinos.
Senate Bill 1493 and Assembly Bill 2143 call for the elimination of the smoking ban exemption in casinos. However, both bills have stalled in legislature, leading CEASE to call on Murphy’s aid.
Murphy is a champion of maternal health in New Jersey. She created the The Nurture NJ Strategic Plan with three main objectives in mind, according to the Nurture NJ website:
- Ensure all women are healthy and have access to care before pregnancy
- Build a safe, high-quality, equitable system of care and services for all women during prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care
- Ensure supportive community environments and contexts during every other period of a woman’s life so that the conditions and opportunities for health are always available
CEASE called the Bally’s incident last week involving a pregnant women “heartbreaking,” which was expressed to Murphy in the letter. Because of Murphy’s involvement in maternal health, Vitola is asking for help.
“That’s why we want to ensure you are aware of the situation we face in Atlantic City, where indoor smoking is still permitted at our workplaces. Pregnant women are among the thousands of employees like us who are forced to breathe secondhand smoke on the job.”
Vitola explained her experiences as a pregnant table games dealer, unable to leave her job. In a cry for help, Vitola made the following request to Murphy:
“We urge you to use your voice to speak out on our behalf and call on the legislature to send S1493/A2143 to Governor Murphy’s desk immediately.
“This would be consistent not only with your priorities as First Lady over the last eight years, but also with common sense and decency to ensure that every mother and child don’t face needless threats to their health. We are counting on leaders like you to do what we all know is the right thing.”
CEASE keeping promise of pressuring those in power
The New Jersey Superior Court ruled against CEASE in a decision in September. While CEASE has appealed to the New Jersey Supreme Court, the organization has also shifted attention to lawmakers, and those in power, including Murphy, within the state.
CEASE co-founder, Pete Naccarelli, alluded to that after the September ruling:
“Basically, what we are asking lawmakers, will you do the right thing. Or do you agree with the ruling where the judge was quoted saying ‘safety is not a fundamental right’ of the workers? Please do the right thing.”
UAW Region 9 Director, Dan Vicente, also called out Assemblyman William F. Moen Jr. (D), who introduced a bill to ban smoking in January, but is sitting in the Senate committee.
“I want to call out Assembly member Moen because if this brother truly is a friend of the working people in the state of New Jersey, and really does care about the life, health and safety of working people throughout the state, he’ll move this bill out of Committee the first opportunity.”
CEASE has also released digital campaigns in important legislative districts, including Moen’s, to portray the lives casino workers who breathe in smoke every day.
The fight is far from over as CEASE called on one of New Jersey’s most influential figures.
