Press Release - March 25, 2025

Nitro, WV — A proposal by the Mardi Gras Casino would roll back Kanawha County’s smokefree protections by opening a new indoor smoking section.

In 2008, Kanawha County eliminated smoking in almost all indoor public spaces. This included the Mardi Gras Casino starting in 2009. After more than a decade operating 100% smokefree, the Mardi Gras Casino is attempting to reintroduce smoking and vaping in a proposed new gaming room.

The Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health opened a 30-day public comment period for the casino’s proposal.

“This proposal would create a serious public health risk for workers and the community,” said Traci Kennedy, Midwest States Strategist for Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR). “The ventilation systems championed by Mardi Gras Casino executives are not a reasonable compromise. In reality, they offer no real solution. While ventilation might remove the smell of smoke, it does nothing to eliminate carcinogens and countless other harmful chemicals. No one should have to deal with the inescapable threat of secondhand smoke exposure simply because casino executives do not listen to experts. The Board of Health should put worker safety first and reject the Mardi Gras Casino’s proposal.”

Read more about the proposal here.

BACKGROUND

Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure kills nearly 500,000 Americans every year. Secondhand smoke puts adults who don’t smoke at risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke. Even brief exposure can cause immediate harm. Completely eliminating smoking is the only way to fully protect people who do not smoke from secondhand smoke exposure.”

Advanced air filtration systems do protect against the well-established harms of secondhand smoke. In fact, the engineers who design those ventilation systems say they don’t solve the problem. These engineers, from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), warn that even the best filtration and ventilation systems "are not effective against secondhand smoke" and "can reduce only odor and discomfort but cannot eliminate exposure… There is no currently available or reasonably anticipated ventilation or air cleaning system that can adequately control or significantly reduce the health risks of [environmental tobacco smoke] to an acceptable level.”

The Surgeon General released a comprehensive report underscoring the dangers of secondhand smoke and the critical need for smokefree environments, including casinos. The report highlights broad public support with 75% of adults – including frequent casino visitors — favoring these policies. The Surgeon General further emphasizes: “Failure to protect employees in these settings risks exacerbating health disparities among casino and hospitality workers relative to workers who are protected by workplace smokefree policies. State, territorial, local, and tribal smokefree laws that apply to casinos would protect these employees as well as visitors from the health effects of secondhand tobacco smoke.”
 

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About ANR

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for almost 50 years, since 1976, to protect everyone’s right to breathe nontoxic air in workplaces and public places, from offices and airplanes to restaurants, bars, and casinos. ANR has continuously shined a light on the tobacco industry’s interference with sound and life-saving public health measures and successfully protected 61% of the population with local or statewide smokefree workplace, restaurant, and bar laws. ANR aims to close gaps in smokefree protections for workers in all workplaces, including bars, music venues, casinos, and hotels. For more information, please visit https://nonsmokersrights.org and https://smokefreecasinos.org