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StumbleIll with terminal lung cancer, ex-slot manager presses for ban
Cheryl Rose, diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in June 2008, worked in casinos in Las Vegas for 22 years. She wants to help transform the industry with a ban on smoking.
Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
In Today's Sun
- The smoky casino: Good for business … (2-14-2010)
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
- CityCenter’s Aria to protect blackjack dealers from smoke (8-21-2009)
- Smoking study capped Caesars dealer’s long, lonely fight (5-12-2009)
- Study arms smoking foes (5-7-2009)
- Closer look at smoking ban (5-1-2009)
- Casino restaurant patrons can't elude secondhand smoke (1-16-2009)
- Study finds high pollution levels in casino restaurants (1-15-2009)
- Smoking ban not doing all the banning sponsors hoped (7-21-2009)
In April 2008, 60-year-old Cheryl Rose got a bad cough that wouldn’t go away.
Her doctors thought she had asthma — a bizarre turn for a woman who had never had difficulty breathing, not even during frequent workouts at the gym.
A few weeks later, an X-ray revealed that her right lung was filling with fluid at a frightening rate. Doctors told Rose, a woman who lived a healthy lifestyle and had never taken regular medications, that she probably wouldn’t live to see 2009.
Rose was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in June 2008. She had never smoked, and there was no history of cancer in her family. Doctors told Rose what she had suspected: Her cancer likely resulted from years of inhaling smoke at work — in casinos.
And now that she’s dying, Rose is on a mission to reform the industry where she spent the best years of her life. She wants smoking banned in casinos.
“God gives each of us a purpose in life,” she says. “I’m someone who can’t stand by and not do what I can to help. People are afraid for their jobs and they’re afraid to take risks. I want to be an advocate for people who are afraid to speak up for themselves.”
Working in casinos
Like others before her, Rose saw a career, and good money, in a casino job. She was good with numbers and had taken college-level accounting classes, so a job handling money made sense.
“This was the industry to be in — that’s where the opportunities were.”
Rose worked in Las Vegas casinos for 22 years, first as a slot attendant, or “change girl,” who paid jackpots and made change for customers in the days when slot machines accepted coins. She worked her way up the corporate ladder for more than a decade, finally becoming a slot director, overseeing slot attendants and technicians and working with slot vendors to purchase machines and place them in strategic locations.
She wasn’t around smoke much outside of work, as neither friends nor family smoked. But it was ever-present on the job. As a casino manager, Rose accepted that fact — even embraced it.
Allowing customers to smoke wasn’t just a way of life in Nevada, with its “live and let live” culture. Enabling smoking, she says, was a profit-driven goal.
Although most gamblers don’t smoke, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence — much of it from casino companies — that many repeat gamblers smoke. Several studies have uncovered a strong link between chain smoking and problem gambling. The behaviors reinforce each other.
Rose knew smoking seemed to be good for business, even if it wasn’t good for customers.
She says some loyal customers stopped coming, because of doctors’ orders to avoid smoke.
But to her, smoke was a small downside to an otherwise fulfilling job.
“This was a good company to work for,” she says. “They offered me opportunities I never thought were possible.”
Her employer didn’t let her lack of a college degree prevent her ascent into management. The company paid for her to attend business leadership courses and UNLV classes in statistics and casino management. A high salary and performance-based bonuses were a testament to her skill as a manager.
All of which goes to explain why she wouldn’t consent to be interviewed for this story unless the company’s name was withheld. The company shouldn’t be singled out, she says.
Rose’s conflicted feelings toward her employer are typical of many casino workers who develop health problems linked to smoky environments or the high-stress nature of casino work.
Like many of her peers, Rose isn’t suing her employer for health-related damages, nor did she file a workers’ compensation claim.
It would be hypocritical, she said, because she had supported her employer’s efforts to accommodate smokers. She had encouraged gamblers to light up.
Instead, she is approaching her fight against smoke the same way she is tackling her battle against cancer: by focusing on what can be done in the future rather than what should have been done in the past.
Secondhand smoke
Slot directors have one of the most important jobs in the casino business. Although table games give casinos their mystique, slots make most of the money — and for Rose, overseeing the operation created 60- to 70-hour workweeks.
Rose didn’t always hole up in an office. She was a hands-on manager at a company that encouraged interaction between upper management, line workers and customers. She spent a lot of time walking the casino floor and talking to gamblers.
And, in hindsight, breathing in clouds of smoke.
She was aware of the risks of smoking, of course, but “when you’re working in the casino industry you’re not focused on health issues. You’re focused on the bottom line,” she explains.
Besides, she adds, “When you’re healthy, and you eat right and exercise, you don’t think bad things will happen to you.”
What she didn’t realize, until after her diagnosis, was that she didn’t have to be a smoker to develop lung cancer.
Speaking out
Rose was laid off from her job in February 2008 — one of the thousands of Las Vegas casino workers who have lost jobs because of the recession. As a widow, she had no way to stave off foreclosure, so she lost her house, too.
She was left with not much more than that troublesome cough — and her determination to speak out about the danger of secondhand smoke.
A few months ago, she appeared in a public service announcement sponsored by anti-smoking advocates Smoke-Free Gaming and posted on YouTube, calling for a smoking ban in casinos. She joined a group of casino workers participating in a Smoke-Free Gaming rally at the Global Gaming Expo, the industry’s largest trade show, in Las Vegas in November.
Mostly, though, Rose is preoccupied with staying alive.
Every three weeks a doctor hooks her up to an IV for chemo treatment. Once a week her doctor draws blood to make sure her blood cell counts are within normal ranges.
Now 61, Rose has so far beaten the odds, living well beyond the typical life expectancy for someone with terminal cancer.
But the cancer cells, which had previously lodged in her spine and hip, recently spread to her liver.
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Possible, of course Christopher Reeve's wife died of lung cancer and never smoked.
Second hand smoke is a known health hazard and if the casinos are worried about losing money if they ban smoking maybe they should give it a go and see what happens. My proposal: ban smoking for one week during the Great American Smoke Out the third week in November & advertise it so the non-smokers are informed that they can go to the casino without worrying about the second hand smoke. My bet is they will be just as busy or busier. Many people refuse to go to a casino because of the smoke. I for one will be there for the entire week.
Regarding the studies that have uncovered a strong link between chain smoking and problem gambling, the behaviors may reinforce each other but there are many ex-smokers who still like to gamble, the link may be that people who like to smoke also like to gamble. Let's see some studies on non or ex-smokers and the reinforcement with gambling.
I play poker in almost all of the live poker rooms and smoking is not allowed in the room. The rooms are always full, so the assumption that smoking is integral to gambling is just not true. There are more non-smokers than smokers. I'm sick of the whining from smokers. My grandmother died of second hand smoke and never smoked a day in her life. How? From the bingo halls. It is time to leave the 1950's and realize non-smokers have rights too. I've always wondered why casinos allow their property to be destroyed with layers of smoke residue. I was at the M grand opening and it was just beautiful. Then the doors opened and it seemed like sacrilege when the crowd entered and the cigarettes were all lighting up. My thoughts were how disrespectul. I would never do that a friend's house, why is it allowed/tolerated anywhere else?
I would suggest anyone working in a casino who does not want to be exposed to smoke should get into a different line of work. It comes with the territory.
The fight that Rose in in the midst of is a battle all of us will face. The odds are tough but her will to live can accomplish miracles. We all agree that working to cure cancer is a good thing but wonder why that cure is so illusive. So many people educated in science would gladly spend their days on this fight but there are few places to ply such a trade. It simply is not a priority of society. However it becomes an individual priority for almost everyone at some point. Our local Cancer Center has only a tiny cancer research component towards a cure. All of the money is on the treatment side, the business of treatment, accounting and regulatory compliance. Still the institution exclaims it is after a cure and fund raising events are touted by well paid marketing people in that regard. If you care about this ask them about the basic research. Yes there is a token component but ask where is the army of biochemists, cell biologists, and researchers work who are not high paid physicians. Where are those driven souls not in it for the money? Ask them why instead of funding a biologist they choose to fund a position of a "Physicians Concierge" ???. If you care, instead of going to the casino with your money drive over to the cancer center, give them your money, and demand they walk the talk with it. Do this, if for no other reason, because the casinos do not want you to even think of doing this.
You can help to generate more research dollars by supporting HR2112 and S332 - Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act. This is first ever federal legislation that deals specifically with lung cancer. It calls for the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense to develop a coordinated, comprehensive plan to fund research for lung cancer.
Contact Congress by going to www.lungcanceralliance.org, click the picture of the Capitol and sign a form letter to send to your Congressional representatives. There is space to write your own comments as well.
So she was loyal and hard working; kept her mouth shut; got sick; didn't sue or claim workers comp; got fired.
Once again, small microcosmic events are symptomatic of the bigger picture.
The Nevada Legislature has, by and large, forbidden workers and consumers from suing on claims which are commonly pursued in other states. The Nevada Legislature and Governor completely took away the Attorney General's budget to file litigation for consumer fraud. The Labor Commissioner is in the pockets of the casinos and other large employers.
I wish The Sun would just plainly make its readers aware of these facts, rather than quietly going along with what is going on. If The Sun were truthful, those unemployed and under-employed and retired who could move away WOULD move away, and those foolishly considering moving to Nevada would perhaps reconsider.
Nevada is, first and foremost, a Banana Republic. The Nevada Democrats currently in power are responsible for that fact. All of them just want to go along, get along, and collect their paychecks on the dole from the taxpayers.
As a matter of fact, I personally feel a much better life quality at work since our casino went nonsmoking. It's in Switzerland, and our casino has not the typical size off a Las Vegas casino, so hard to compare. From what I see, however, Las Vegas's casinos have usually a very very good airconditinoning and smoke inside of the casino is not even half as bad as it was before our casino went nonsmoking due to law-enforcement.
I think that banning smoking in the Nevada casinos would not be very effective, as probably many people would indeed not come gambling anymore and some Indian reservations perhaps would make huge extra profits if they wouldn't have to ban smoking from their casinos.
What be of a big help to everybody, that would be a smoking ban at all gaming tables. Put a cord rail around all tables and nobody can smoke crossing that cord. People who wish to smoke can do so, but have to stand on the other side of that rail. Put enough ash trays there. So the employees would be protected, and because the Nevada casinos have excellent air filtering and airconditioning systems, it should be possible to get rid of that smoke. Smokers would not have to leave the casinos, but would probably understand that 2nd hand smoke may in fact bother and harm other people.
This is just a suggestion that might work. Our casino has built smoking rooms in which smoking is permitted. There is no smoking in the main floor and in the restaurants/restrooms, etc. And it works. But it probably only works because there's no smoking in the entire state. Other states are still fighting to avoid the smoking ban, fearing many players would no longer come gambling. I don't like the idea that casinos are so ignorant and prefer having suffering employees for the cost of additional 20 per cent of extra profit. Life could be so much more pleasant without 2nd hand smoke. I can only speak for myself.
From Switzerland
I have never smoked and am all for smokers having the right to smoke but non-smokers have the right not to be exposed to second hand smoke. The Casino industry will have no choice but to ban it on their properties because the lawsuits will continue until they do. I suggest they install comfortable areas sealed off from the casino for their patrons to smoke.
Interesting how most poker rooms are non-smoking, but have plenty of customers. Casinos need to have some balls and go smoke free. It's just a matter time before mounting lawsuits and public pressure forces casinos deal with the smoking issue.
Just stop at all the casinos on/near Boulder Hwy, and you will be amazed at the number of low ceiling cigarette stinker places. Our locals casinos are death pits. That's where you will get lung cancer due to working there. But hey, you need a job, the economy sucks, so you take your chances.
Sadly, one of the few non stinkers is Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas. It's going down big time, despite being a relatively clean place. But they have their share of butt-fiend employees, too. Soon, we'll only have the Boulder/Henderson smoke pits left. Pitiful...
I am sure most of you guys are not aware latest research into lung cancer. Firstly in an unventilated bar the barman/woman will breathe in the equivalent of 0.009 cigarettes per hour, making a daily consumption of of not even 0.01 of a cigarette over an 8 hour shift. The English Professor Sir Richard Doll in the 1950s who first found that active smokers contracted 90% of lung cancer cases also found that those who smoked up to 3 cigarettes a day had no raised risk of lung cancer, heart disease or early mortality.
Also it has recently been discovered that in smokers, lung cancer is contracted from the Trnsprotein 53 in chromosone 11 mutating, compromising the body's ability to fight off lung cancer. In non smokers it is the mutation of the EGPFR an epidermal growth factor protein. The diseases are quite different and caused by different reasons. This mutation is not caused by smoking and research is underway to find the reason. Passive smoking was definitely not the cause Cheryl Rose's lung cancer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19844...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18598...
i don't go to casino because i can't stand the stench. smoking sucks. go ahead and smoke butt don't make non-smoker paid your medical bills
Link to an audio/visual tutorial on anatomy and lung cancer http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutor...
wouldn't it stand to reason that if second hand smoke causes lung cancer in casino employees the incidence of lung cancer would be significant in that group? i've seen no evidence to support casino workers being at greater risk than anyone else. sooner or later--and for some it is sooner, no doubt--we all die of something.
no one ever mentions that exhaust fumes from cars and airplanes' jet fuel might be as serious a causative factor as cigarette fumes. while we're banning smoke in casinos, maybe we should ban driving cars on the strip and close down the airport, too.
I think that if there is any time to test the non-smoking casino theory it is now. A company such as MGM HET or Stations could market one of their casinos as non-smoking to tap into this market. If this proves to be a success they could follow suit with additional properties. If this fails the discussion could be put to bed. The silver city was not enough of a sampling to prove that it would not work. I am a smoker and I would just continue to visit the smoker friendly casinos.
Most of the general public does not care whether a "study" found that second hand smoke does not cause lung cancer. It is still important to them not to be exposed to it.
DaveA: Probably doing cancer research on the web is all fine and well but as someone with years of real life cancer research experience I do not agree with your interpretation of the information you reviewed. There is no way to ever pinpoint the cause of lung cancer or to rule out an environmental mutagen such as the random mutagenic compounds in any type of smoke. The only fact known for sure is that a single mutation in a single gene in a single cell caused by as little as a single molecule or photon may initiate the transformation process. Keep in mind that in science appeal to authority is not a valid step in deductive logic. Doing simple calculations using volume and concentration shows this scientist that in terms of math your information on the .01 cig/8hr shift is off by a factor of over 500.
Remember: if this was asbestos, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. The floor would be closed until the toxic had been removed. Period.
Secondhand smoke is just another airborne carcinogen. It's no different from asbestos. There's no reason we should be giving it special rights. There's no reason we should be treating it any differently from asbestos.
And the good news is, it's much, much, easier to remove secondhand smoke. You just stop adding it. Might want to clean the place up, but the basic step is: stop the smoking. It's making the staff sick and killing them.
The bad news: every day we wait to do this, the more damage we do to the hearts and lungs of the staff who work there.
I like my gaming staff. I don't want them to get sick and die. I want them to be there, making great gaming happen.
And the really good news: smokefree does not hurt business. That includes smokefree bars and smokefree gaming. Instance after instance, bar after bar, room after room, establishment after establishment shows: business does not go down when you go smokefree. Repeat: business does not go down. Just cancer.
Luckily federal studies have yet to find a statistically significant correlation between the air quality in smoking and non smoking sections of the casinos.
Yes lung cancer occurs without smoking.
And yes, businesses do see a reduction in profits when smoking is banned.
Quite frankly, if you don't like smoking and think it is really a hazard don't patronize businesses that allow it. Because most of us know second hand smoke is not a major threat we take the risk freely.
i hope that one day there will be a non-smoking casino...i believe many including myself will patronize it:)
Being a casino worker myself and having numerous sinus infections and breathing problems myself, I can tell you for sure nobody cares. They really don't. Atlantic City was so close, especially with the case of Vinnie Reinich who also got lung cancer from the casino industry.We can thank our incompatent casino control commission who turned it on us and voted to continue to allow smoking due to the economy. Our only strenth is the UAW who will fight for the dealers which ultimately will help all casino workers.We are fighting against a monster who doesn't care about people.Only the mighty dollar.
Jeez.. I have to agree with VC again? oh well he's right!
I fly in Vegas alot and see the haze around the City.We are in a valley and it traps all the polution just like L.A.I am glad to see it rain here because it cleans the air.We can not blame it all on the smokers,blame it on cars, buses, airplane and the list goes on.SO what do we do about it stop breathing. GO GREEN.
Dave A states: "Firstly in an unventilated bar the barman/woman will breathe in the equivalent of ... a daily consumption of of not even 0.01 of a cigarette over an 8 hour shift"
A quick Google search easily exposes that as untrue. Example: http://www1.umn.edu/perio/tobacco/second...
You mention a cure. As a survivor I can tell you we all would prefer having never had cancer in the first place to suffering and then receiving a cure.
Then you state: "Passive smoking was definitely not the cause Cheryl Rose's lung cancer."
The articles you link to right below that both point out the most common cause of lung cancer is tobacco.
Please cite evidence you have for the cause Cheryl Rose's cancer.
This is a philosophical argument for most, but for me this is very personal. Cheryl is my Sister in Law, I have known her for nearly 30 years, she is my wife's best friend, and we will loose her far too early. I am grateful for all of the "sisters" vacations they took together, the countless card games we played, going through Rapport Leadership training together, and too many other things to list.
It is truly tragic to loose a loved family member needlessly. Frankly it pisses me off that Cheryl worked in a smoked filled casino for all those years so a few people could enjoy their cigarettes and now she has lung cancer. If she were a smoker or had poor health habits one could argue, it was her choice, but it wasn't her choice and she is stuck with the consequences and we are loosing a loved family member, as are her children and grandchildren.
Cheryl was a model citizen. She worked hard, moved up the corporate ladder, saved her money, paid her bills, went to the gym 4 to even 6 days a week. And there is ZERO history of cancer in the family.
What happens when you get cancer, loose your job and can't afford the insurance premiums when they increase them?
The story did not touch on this. Her Cobra health insurance eventually ran out and she could no longer afford insurance, she missed several chemo treatments, and has burned through all of her savings. That is a whole other issue about health care and insurance.
Oh and to those of you that say it wasn't the cigarettes. Guess it's easy when it's not someone you love. Here's my rebuttal, why even take the chance with peoples lives. It hurts me that people are so casual and insistive to this. Cheryl is dying, my wife and I will be attending her funeral, and you argue that maybe it maybe it wasn't the cigarettes. Please join us at the funeral, watch the tears and heartbreak, look her children and grandchildren in their tear filled eyes and let me know if you feel the same way then.
Very, very moving post, billgrunau. I lost my mother at the ripe old age of 60. A complete and utter butt fiend. Luckily, she had a heart attack, so it was over quickly.
Very best of luck with your travails. Best to Cheryl, too.
Well first of all I have been in the industry for 20 years. I have never had a co-worker die of any kind of CANCER in all my years. My own mother died of cancer at the age of 51, she never smoked, and was never around it. I feel for Cheryl, I know her. She is a great women, but do not blame a casino. I am sure shes been to bars, and restaurants where they smoked. Stop blaming, I wish you the best Cheryl, but your barking up the wrong tree.
If you read the article you'd see she doesnt blame the casino she worked for, she just wants to make it better for everyone else and try to make a change. Yes my aunt is a great woman and don't say she is barking up the wrong tree and blaming because she is trying to make a difference. Last time I checked smoking was banned from restraunts and bars almost everywhere, and that did not hurt the restraunt business nor the bars. I think your the one barking up the wrong tree bud.
And as far as Cancer is concerned yes it can come from out of nowhere my grandfather also died about a year ago from lung cancer as well and was not around smoking nor smoked at all. But that does not mean that second hand smoke is not to blame for anything. You can spout your science for all I care but in the end a life is lost. I now have to attend a funeral to another loved one, and yes I blame smoking.
I find it astonishing that some still think maybe second hand smoke isn't dangerous. How can anyone be that stupid or uncaring.
California banned smoking in bars and restaurants decades ago. The same cries came then, it will kill our business, everyone wants to smoke when they go out, and on and on. Guess what, it had ZERO affect on business. In fact it is much nicer to go out no that we don't have to share the cigarette smoke.
Smokers and a TINY minority that either cannot quit because it is too late and they are addicted or just don't care about their health. This is OK for them either way. BUT the majority in a public place should not be forced to breath smoke and toxic fumes exhaled by a minority.
One other thing. If first hand smoke causes cancer and kills people, what logic is there that somehow the user has magically filtered out all of the toxins and they stay in their body and don't go into back into the air. Forget the science arguement, it just defies logic that somehow the smoke is now OK after the user has breathed it in and exhaled it. Again, just a lame arguement.
My personal suspicion... The people saying this is not a problem are either casino execs, casino PR stooges trying to sway opinion, or their cohorts at the tobacco companies. Go smoke in your closet and leave us with our health and clean air!
Amazing that the 10 year study in england which revealed no proof that 2nd hand smoke causes cancer was totally ignored by the WHO (world health org) which is where we get our marching orders. This reminds me of the hoax called global warming which is falsely contrived manipulated data at best. Go ahead and ban smoking if you want along with all mcdonalds, fast food establishments, alcohol and everything else that you goody two shoes say harms us. Ban smoking and I would never return to vegas again and you can chalk up another $12,000 per year in lost revenue (you could always blame it on bush) but most of you wouldn't care which is why your state is going bankrupt. I'm returning to vegas next month for 5 days and have reserved a smoking room at a harrah's property, however I do smoke "All Natural" tobacco which is not sprayed with any toxic carcinogin's so I won't endanger any of your employees. Be very careful going down this slippery slope to ban smoking, Atlantic City is almost bankrupt after going tobacco free otherwise you will lose people like me (which i'm sure many of you would be pleased as punch)
Id be pleased...
I'd be pleased to loose people like sidpers, although if you smoke you won't be around long anyway. I just want to you keep your smoke and toxins to yourself and not infect others with it. Please do stay home, light up all you want, in fact smoke a few extra to proove your point. Just do it alone!
FYI
The following article in the American Association for Cancer Research discusses the fact that although carcinogenic nitrite compounds are inherent in tobacco, the manner in which tobacco leaves are stored in America increases the cancer-causing nitrite to levels seven time stronger than leaves processed in Europe.In the European process, the tobacco is stored and sold under refrigeration to prevent bacteria nitrate fixation. American tobacco is not cold stored, which allows the bacteria to up the carcinogenic nitrite content.
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/16/...
I was saddened to hear of Cheryl's passing. I have some great memories with Cheryl. My thoughts are with you Cerisa, Bill, Ryan, and Brittney.
Toxic tobacco smoke KILLS 65,000 INNOCENT Americans every year. BAN ALL SMOKING NOW AND BAN THE TOBACCO DRUG!
Prosecute the pushers for murder and genocide of the human race.
More info at: http://medicolegal.tripod.com/preventbra...
Debbie what about her husband DAVID???????????