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NIH to
Investigate Casino Smoke
The
National Institute of Health (NIH) will be funding a study by UNR
on the
health impact of second-hand smoke on casino dealers. The NCDA
received
the following letter from Professor Pritsos, who will be
conducting the study.
We, of course, fully support this effort.
October 07, 1999
Dear Mr. Badillo:
I enjoyed our telephone conversation the other day. As you
requested, I am sending to you this letter which I hope will
explain what I am proposing to do and how your union could help me
in this work.
I am a professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University
of Nevada, Reno. My office and laboratories are located in the
Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building on the UNR campus.
As you know, I have conducted research on the health effects of
workplace exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). In this
small study, we found that workplace exposure to ETS greatly
increases damage to a person's DNA and that this DNA damage
increases the potential risk of someone developing cancer.
I am currently writing a grant proposal to the National
Institutes of Health (Federal Research Funding Agency) to conduct
a large scale study in Las Vegas, dealing with the health effects
of exposure to ETS. This study will focus on casino dealers and
would look at whether exposure to ETS at work affects their health
and especially look at health effects related to heart disease.
Heart disease is the number one disease for death in the U.S. and
it has been estimated that exposure to ETS may cause between
40,000 and 60,000 deaths from heart disease each year. I believe
that workplace exposure to ETS by casino dealers may greatly
increase their risk for heart disease.
The Study will involve the filling out of questionnaires,
some record keeping and blood draws five times during the first
year of the study and twice more during the second year of the
study. The participants will be provided with a small compensation
fee for their participation beginning with their third visit. We
will provide them with $25.00/visit. We will also provide them
during the course of the study with some vitamins (containing
antioxidants) which we believe may help to protect them from some
of the harmful effects of the exposure of ETS. We will have three
groups; one receiving high dosages of antioxidants; one receiving
lower dosage of antioxidants and a third receiving a placebo (a
sugar pill with no antioxidants).
We will follow the participants for two years (blood analysis and
questionnaires) and see whether any of the groups shows
improvement in their health based upon our earlier small study in
Reno. I am confident that we can improve the health of the
participants. If we are funded, we could begin our study sometime
in the summer of 2000.
One of the things I need to do for my grant proposal is to
demonstrate that I can get access to the dealers in Las Vegas.
That is why I would like to get a letter of support from your
union for the study.
What I would like is to have a letter stating that you believe
that this would be a good study which could potentially benefit
your membership and that you will allow me to contact your
membership through the union to solicit their participation in the
study. This will not cost the union as I will pay for any mailing
or meetings, etc. I will need this letter in the next two
weeks as I have a deadline for submission of my proposal. You can
either mail or fax me the letter if you are supportive.
Thank you for your time and consideration of my request.
Sincerely
Dr. Chris A. Pristos
Professor
Dept. of Nutrition
University of Nevada Reno
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