Many a poker player has given thought to the bottle of hand wash that sits next to the cashier window in most poker rooms. Perhaps you’ve made jokes about the cleanliness of the chips, wondering in earnest if they’re ever washed.
The cleanliness of the chips may not even be the largest danger they carry. Lead is the main ingredient in most poker chips.
Contractors wear protective gear when they are working around lead. Children are tested for lead poisening by the WIC program, landlords required to provide disclosures to tenants, so why are casinos just now starting to replace lead based poker chips?
Back in the day, right around the time the West was Wild.. poker chips were weighted with lead, which is now known to be a very toxic metal.
Famous gunslingers sat in saloons playing poker with lead filled poker chips and later the rich and famous played in Monte Carlo casinos on the Riviera, they never gave a thought to the dangers of lead, since at that time poker chip distributors and poker room managers didn’t know any better.
Recently California casinos have been challenged to the task of cleaning up their acts, or well.. their poker chips. The voter adopted state anti toxics law and a nonprofit group in Oakland with a record of winning environmental safety battles has taken them to task.
Two weeks ago they forged a clean poker chip agreement with a major manufacturer of poker chips and 21 casino owners will soon be getting the led out of their poker games.
The players, dealers and other casino staff that handle the chips are being exposed to lead, said researchers at the Center for Environmental Health. These chips have been handled by a lot of people and what about pregnant woman that work at the casinos. They probably don’t know that they are putting thier unborn children at great risk for birth defects by going to work every day.
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