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StumbleWorker who campaigned to ban casino smoking dies of cancer
Cheryl Rose was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in June 2008 and worked in casinos in Las Vegas for 22 years. Rose died last week.
Monday, April 26, 2010 | 3:52 p.m.
Protest for Smoke-Free Gaming
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del.icio.us60-year-old Cheryl Rose has never smoked, but she has Stage 4 lung cancer from the second-hand smoke in the casino where she worked for 22 years. She's now working with groups like Smoke-Free Gaming to fight for the right to a smoke-free workplace. Smoke-Free Gaming came to Las Vegas to protest the opening of CityCenter's casino Aria, which is a LEED-certified "green" building but still allows smoking.
Sun Archives
- Ill with terminal lung cancer, ex-slot manager presses for ban (2-14-2010)
- The smoky casino: Good for business … (2-14-2010)
Sun Coverage
Cheryl Rose, a casino worker who helped mount a brief campaign to ban smoking in Nevada casinos, died last week after a two-year battle with lung cancer.
Rose passed away April 20 at her daughter's home in Illinois, where she had moved to participate in that state's government-sponsored health insurance program.
An otherwise healthy woman with no previous health problems or any family history of cancer, Rose's doctors first diagnosed her with asthma before X-rays of her fluid-filled lungs confirmed that she had stage 4 lung cancer.
A few months ago, Rose participated in anti-smoking rallies in Las Vegas and appeared in a public service video urging casinos to ban smoking. She was also exercising daily and hiking frequently at Red Rock, her husband David Rose said today. She declined rapidly after the cancer spread to her liver and brain and she began radiation treatment, he said.
A few weeks before her death, Rose filed a workers compensation claim in Nevada with the assistance of a lung cancer specialist who said Rose's cancer was caused by her long-term exposure to smoke on the job. That claim, like the few others that have been filed by Nevada casino workers over the years, was rejected on the basis of a 1992 Nevada Supreme Court case.
The 1992 case arose from a workers compensation claim filed by a similarly healthy worker at a Lake Tahoe casino who developed breathing problems after many years as a pit boss. While the state determined that the man's health problem resulted from inhaling second-hand smoke on the job, a majority of justices concluded that second-hand smoke-related illnesses aren't covered by the state's workers compensation law because they aren't considered an occupational disease specific to the casino industry the way that black lung disease is inextricably linked with mining.
In spite of the frequent presence of smoke in casinos and the associated health risks, Nevada's workers compensation system could go bankrupt if workers were entitled to financial compensation for smoke-related problems, one of the justices said.
A memorial service for Rose will be held Sunday at Green Valley Ranch, one of her previous employers.
In a previous interview with Sun, Cheryl Rose declined to name the property or its owner, Station Casinos, so as not to blame any single employer for the presence of second-hand smoke. She bore no animosity toward the company, where she spent 22 years, most recently as a slot manager.
Rose is survived by two brothers, two sisters, two children, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Rose's ashes will be buried in Las Vegas, next to her first husband.
"All of her friends are in Vegas," David Rose said.
While her immediate family is scattered across Illinois, Florida, California and Arizona, Rose's work family is concentrated at Station Casinos, where she "touched the lives of a lot of people," he said.
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Rest in peace, Cheryl
This is just too sad. I remember this lady. I've been in her presence. In her workplace. A more pleasant person you'll never find. I guess there is a lesson here, but I wonder who will learn from it. I will say a prayer and keep her in my thoughts.
When will casino brass learn that there's much more money to be made by offering employees and customers CLEAN AIR to inhale? Only about 20 percent of the public still smoke...the other 80 percent are just second-hand victims.
To Ms. Rose's Family I am truly sorry for your loss she seemed to be a great person trying to bring awareness to the forefront I was able to quit smoking about 12 years ago and every time I read of some one's loss such as this it pains me to know that my actions as well as others are the cause of so many lives lost, I lost my best friend/grandfather to lung cancer.
For a long time I would tell people that I was a ex-smoker when in fact we all smoke it's just are we first hand or second hand smokers.
P.S. I will say a prayer for Ms. Rose
Comment removed by moderator. Off-topic.
Comment removed by moderator. Off-topic.
Since 1981 there have been 148 reported studies on ETS, involving spouses, children and workplace exposure. 124 of these studies showed no significant causal relationship between second hand smoke and lung cancer. Of the 24 which showed some risk, only two had a Relative Risk Factor over 3.0 and none higher. What does this mean. To put it in perspective, Robert Temple, director of drug evaluation at the Food and Drug Administration said "My basic rule is if the relative risk isn't at least 3 or 4, forget it." The National Cancer Institute states "Relative risks of less than 2 are considered small and are usually difficult to interpret. Such increases may be due to mere chance, statistical bias, or the effect of confounding factors that are sometimes not evident." Dr. Kabat, IAQC epidemiologist states "An association is generally considered weak if the relative risk is under 3.0 and particularly when it is under 2.0, as is the case in the relationship of ETS and lung cancer. Therefore, you can see any concern of second hand smoke causing lung cancer is highly questionable." Note that the Relative Risk (RR) of lung cancer for persons drinking whole milk is 2.14 and all cancers from chlorinated water ranked at 1.25. These are higher risks than the average ETS risk. If we believe second hand smoke to be a danger for lung cancer then we should also never drink milk or chlorinated water.
A federal Judge by the name of osteen got a case dropped in his lap in North Carolina,the case was that of EPA'S study on second hand smoke/environmental tobacco smoke.The judge an anti-tobbaco judge by reputation spent 4 years going thru the study and interviewing scientists at EPA and came to the conclusion :
JUNK SCIENCE
''EPA's 1992 conclusions are not supported by reliable scientific evidence. The report has been largely discredited and, in 1998, was legally vacated by a federal judge.Before its 1992 report, EPA had always used epidemiology's gold standard CI of 95 percent to measure statistical significance. But because the U.S. studies chosen[cherry picked] for the report were not statistically significant within a 95 percent CI, for the first time in its history EPA changed the rules and used a 90 percent CI, which doubled the chance of being wrong.
This allowed it to report a statistically significant 19 percent increase [a 1.19rr] of lung cancer cases in the nonsmoking spouses of smokers over those cases found in nonsmoking spouses of nonsmokers. Even though the RR was only 1.19--an amount far short of what is normally required to demonstrate correlation or causality--the agency concluded this was proof SHS increased the risk of U.S. nonsmokers developing lung cancer by 19 percent.''
So here we find that second hand smoke was made a political scapegoat by EPA.Lets not forget how EPA has reworked the global warming studys just this last summer. Where its top scientists paper was rebuked because it didnt carry the EPA'S stand that global warming was real.
Lung cancer is caused. Just because the relative risk may be small, you still are dead.
It is too bad that we have people questioning the statistics, rather than just using simple logic.
The real problem with the ETS studies is that they estimated exposure and did not actually measure it.
If you were the unlikely person who inhaled more ETS than other "average" people, you were at a higher risk.
The studies did not take this into account.
It is said that the Nevada supreme court sided with money rather than looking into actual ETS exposure.
"smoke-related illnesses aren't covered by the state's workers compensation law because they aren't considered an occupational disease specific to the casino industry" WHAT A LOAD OF BS!!!
Welcome to Nevada where casinos own the politicians and aren't liable for anything. They also pay a much smaller percentage in tax than every other state.
We like to gamble but go to casinos in other states with non smoking sections and separate ventilation systems.
I hate having to deal with the nasty smokers in the casinos!
kuntakente, I could not agree with you more! Park outside a Walmart and you will see that once every 5 minutes a smoker will throw their lit butt on the ground instead of extinguishing it and throwing it into a trashcan that is 3 feet away.
Drive down any street and you will always witness a smoker throwing their lit cigarette out their window.
If people want to tar up their lungs, that is their choice. I don't agree with anti-smoking laws going after private businesses or what people do in their own backyards. But at the very least they should clean up their trash, the same as anyone else.
Smokers, drug addicts and alcoholics. Without them, casinos would not survive.
kenodave...there definitely is some truth to your reply! Gambling is just another addiction for a lot of these people.
Someone is no longer living. She died fighting for something she believed in. How's about we focus on that?
I am very sorry for the family and will pray for them, however-when I went to work in casinos it said right on the application that I would be subject to noise, bright lights, and SMOKE!She choose to work there and take their money but it's their fault she got sick.As a security officer in a casino maybe I should sue and say no one told me it could be violent. Take responsibility people!!
Im a non smoker. But, my doctor keeps telling me to quit smoking. He says my lungs are congested. Must be because I work in casinos. Time to quit.
vic167, as a casino secyrtiy gaurd, Ill cut you some slack, because it doesn't take much to do your job.
Cigarette smoking is more dangerous than most illegal drugs. The only reason they are legal, is the same reason alcohol is legal and marijuanna is not. Its called "The Partnership for a Drug Free America" a non- profit made up of corporations from the tobaco, alcohol, and pharmaceutical industry.
So you want to be an insensitive ass, thats okay. Let me offer some advice though. Dont tell us your a security gaurd because then it becomes apparently obvious you are als ignorant.
She died because of her own genes......
March 22, 2010
Scientists identify common gene linked to lung cancer in non-smokers
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk...
JOINT STATEMENT ON THE RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE TOXICOLOGICAL TESTING OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS"
7 October, the COT meeting on 26 October and the COC meeting on 18
November 2004.
http://cot.food.gov.uk/pdfs/cotstatement...
"5. The Committees commented that tobacco smoke was a highly complex chemical mixture and that the causative agents for smoke induced diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, effects on reproduction and on offspring) was unknown. The mechanisms by which tobacco induced adverse effects were not established. The best information related to tobacco smoke - induced lung cancer, but even in this instance a detailed mechanism was not available. The Committees therefore agreed that on the basis of current knowledge it would be very difficult to identify a toxicological testing strategy or a biomonitoring approach for use in volunteer studies with smokers where the end-points determined or biomarkers measured were predictive of the overall burden of tobacco-induced adverse disease."
In other words ... our first hand smoke theory is so lame we can't even design a bogus lab experiment to prove it. In fact ... we don't even know how tobacco does all of the magical things we claim it does.
The greatest threat to the second hand theory is the weakness of the first hand theory.
What is sad is the way people came jump to conclusions so quickly. All we know is what the story said without questions being answered.
Was this lady around during the nuclear testing that was done? Was this woman subject to radon gas that no one knows they have been exposed to as it can not be detected by the senses?
I recommend everyone sits down and makes a list of what they have been exposed to during their life.
I grew up on Licking County ,Ohio where radon gas in some homes is 400% above the EPA limits. I was x rayed like a game for TB back in the late 50s (remember those x ray buses). I used the shoe store x ray machine almost every week we went to town. I was used in a experimental vacine for respiratory diseases in boot camp. I was exposed to radiation while a federal employee, and more, I have smoked for 39 years and am in good health. If I die of cancer what started it?
Please, lets just keep a good thought for Cheryl. Pray for her family, it will do you a world of good.
Whether or not smoking causes cancer, that's not the issue for me. Having to breath someone's nasty cigarette smoke while in a casino still disgusts me!
I, like almost everyone I know, don't patronize casinos that are full of tobacco smoke. If the casino doesn't provide areas for smoke free gambling, we don't take our disposable dollars to that establishment. That means meal dollars and referrals for out-of-town guests who want to stay at a casino hotel for the Las Vegas "experience."
The management conglomerates will catch-on eventually. Meanwhile, more people will die of horrific, tobacco related illnesses because of where they work.
HarleyRider1978 strikes me as a shill for the casinos. He has too much information to be a civilian.
I, for one, will not go into a casino which has a bad ventilation system, because I do not like second hand smoke. If they don't have clean air, I won't spend my money.
So I won't go in the South Pointe, for example.
In contrast, last time I was there, the Monte Carlo had "non-smoking craps table". Now that is classy.
Harleyrider is a schmuck. He knows it. His two best friends are his smokes and his bike. Coming in a close third is his call girl which he can only afford once every other month... after he collects enough cans for money.