RENO, Nev. (AP) - Researchers are expanding a four-year, $2.3 million study on the effects of second-hand smoke in the workplace to northern Nevada.

Researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno want to include a Reno site where non-smokers work in smoky environments. Chris Pritsos, chairman of UNR's Department of Nutrition and the lead researcher on the project, is trying to recruit 375 non-smoking workers for the study and already has 51 taking part in Las Vegas. He wants to learn whether a combination of antioxidant vitamin supplements might reduce the health risk for bartenders, cocktail waitresses and others who work inside smoky casinos and bars. "We wanted to expand the study so we could include more workers in multiple sites and draw broader, more conclusive findings," he said. Volunteers will be split into groups taking different levels of supplements to find out which are most effective. Participants will take them for two years. A preliminary 1997 study Pritsos conducted showed promising evidence that a combination of supplements might provide some protection against second-hand smoke. "Determining the best level and which antioxidants to take is important because the vitamin and mineral industry is loosely regulated," he said. "Often the general public is led to believe that more is better - which may or may not be the case." The research project is being funded by the National Institutes of Health, and is the first major study into the effects of workplace exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. The Nevada School of Medicine is working with UNR on the study, which was launched last year. A study published last year in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found Nevada had the fewest smoke-free work environments in the nation. Nevada ranks second only to Kentucky in the percentage of adult smokers, and has the highest rate of asthma and deaths from smoking-related illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 2,600 people die each year in Nevada from smoking-related illnesses.

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