It is our intention to keep our members and all site visitors informed of the status of the NFGE's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. We, therefore, are printing the following news story of Thursday's session of Nevada's Supreme Court which we attended. The Court will shortly rule on the issue of medical monitoring for casino dealers. This ruling constitutes an important milestone in our battle for equity.

Friday, September 15, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SECOND - HAND SMOKE LAWSUIT:
Monitoring plan argued
Dealers want tobacco industry to pay

By SEAN WHALEY
DONREY CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- Casino dealers exposed to years of second-hand cigarette smoke asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to authorize creation of a medical monitoring program paid for by tobacco companies to detect the possible onset of lung cancer or heart disease.

  But an attorney for the tobacco companies urged the court to reject medical monitoring and said it would open a new and costly legal claim based not on a medical problem but on "increased risk."

  The issues before the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case brought by retired Las Vegas casino dealer Tony Badillo and others, is whether Nevada law permits the creation of a medical monitoring program, and if so, what the program should look like.

  The court was asked to decide the questions by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro, who has the case brought by Badillo and eight other casino dealers against the tobacco companies in federal court in October 1997.

  Attorneys for the casino employees want the group certified for class-action status by Pro. The group would consist of as many as 45,000 casino employees exposed to second-hand smoke but who have not developed medical problems related to the exposure.

  Tobacco companies would be required to pay for the creation of a program to monitor the health of the former and current casino employees to detect and treat the development of smoking-related illnesses.

  Attorney Dan Polsenberg, one of many lawyers representing Badillo and the other dealers, said a medical monitoring program makes sense in Nevada.

  In this case, the exposure was suffered by dealers who were not made aware of the health risks of second-hand smoke. The tobacco companies knew full well that their product was harmful, he said. 

  If a nuclear waste shipment crashed, and people were exposed to radiation, then a medical monitoring program to detect the onset of disease would be a logical remedy, Polsenberg said.

  But attorney Dennis Kennedy, speaking on behalf of the 17 tobacco companies and organizations named in the lawsuit, said establishing medical monitoring for a group of people exposed to a harmful substance would establish legal claims that could envelop every business and government agency in Nevada.

  Every resident of Ely and McGill could seek monitoring for exposure to airborne toxins generated from the smelting of copper in White Pine County by the Kennecott Copper Corp. through 1980, he said.

  If a study were ever to show that fluoride had even a minute level of toxicity, every person who drank fluoridated water could seek medical monitoring for cancer from the government agency that authorized its use, Kennedy said.

"No one knows what the cost of compensating for risk will be," he said.

If the concept of medical monitoring is a valid one, it should be considered by the Legislature after all sides have been heard, Kennedy said.

Polsenberg said Kennedy was exaggerating the potential effect of the dealers' case. Such a remedy would be sought in extreme cases only, in which a company had knowledge of but did not disclose a danger.

"I'm not talking about mere negligence," he said. "I'm not talking about fluoridated water."

  Badillo, who attended the hearing, said he is concerned about his health after retiring from 42 years of work as a casino dealer. Badillo said tobacco companies never warned the public of the dangers of second-hand smoke.

  The companies should be required to pay to ensure that any health problems are detected early and treated, he said.
* * *

 This story was located at:
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Sep-15-Fri-2000/news/14392543.html