Casino news source: Business Press - http://www.lvbusinesspress.com
Quit smoking is now part of the company plan
BY LAURA CARROLL
The Nevada Cancer Institute's addiction counselor, Gary Pfifer, gets around.
The institute's smoking-cessation seminars, which Pfifer teaches, are being offered in Las Vegas, as well as in New York-New York ... Hotel & Casino that is.
In a community-outreach effort, the institute donated Pfifer's services to MGM Mirage. Now, as an added course within its Healthy Living wellness program, the gaming company is offering employees of New York-New York Hotel & Casino free smoking-cessation classes, beginning tomorrow.
"Nevada Cancer Institute and MGM Mirage have had a long relationship. (They) just finished a series of health and benefit fairs at our properties, " Kelly Tucky, vice president of benefits education and health promotion for MGM Mirage, said. According to Tucky, New York-New York was a random choice for the classes, and they may institute them throughout the company's other properties if they are well-received at the Big Apple on the Strip.
At press time, Tucky didn't have the exact number of employees enrolled in the smoking-cessation class but did note that "most of our classes have a limit of 30."
In addition to the program's Las Vegas courses, Pfifer works with the Moapa, Duckwater and Las Vegas Paiute bands of Native American tribes teaching smoking-cessation classes on the reservation. In addition to the free education, the Nevada Cancer Institute donates nicotine-replacement therapy to the tribal health clinics.
Strip casino employees may be more interested in quitting smoking now more than ever. Because of the smoking bans enforced by the passing of Question Five in the last public vote, MGM Mirage casinos are relocating their employee-smoking areas to the great outdoors. The hospitality company also offers nicotine-replacement-therapy benefit coverage and counseling services for those interested in kicking the habit.
"The ban can serve as motivation for them to quit, because many people need that one event, that tipping point," Tucky said.
The institute's most accessible class, because it is open to the public, will be held every Monday at 6 p.m., starting today at the Nevada Cancer Institute's Southwest location. The entire program runs six weeks long, with one class per week.
The first class in the seminar is open for patients and family, and lasts one hour. Interested parties should call the Nevada Cancer Institute for more information or to register.
"I am very cheap," Pfifer joked, referring to the price of his classes. "You can save scores of money by quitting. Healthcare costs go down and you don't have to contend with the cost of cigarettes anymore."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking cost the nation around $92 billion in lost productivity from 1997 to 2001. The same report found that an estimated 438,000 premature deaths occur each year as a result of smoking and secondhand smoke.
"It's a really dangerous drug," Pfifer said. "You absolutely know it's hurting you." |
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