Secondhand smoke workers compensation cases and deaths

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Secondhand smoke workers compensation claims and deaths are important because they demonstrate the health hazards posed to workers who must work around secondhand tobacco smoke. Secondhand smoke injuries and deaths are often underreported. Most workers compensation cases are settled and thus create no legal precedent for on-the-job injury from secondhand smoke exposure. Moreover, workers compensation boards do not usually make their decisions public. Also, because they are settled, little attention is given to workers compensation cases in the mainstream media. Yet the tobacco industry's document archives are full of cases where either workers or their surviving family members have reported on-the-job illness, injury or death from secondhand smoke exposure, or filed workers compensation claims for same. We log such cases on this page, so the public can more easily view information on them.

• Cheryl Rose, a nonsmoker, diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer after working for 22 years as a slot attendant in casinos where smoking was allowed. Cheryl Rose died in April, 2010 from her disease.
• Nonsmoker wins suit on illness secondhand smoke caused heart attack (1990)
• Workplace Exposure Cases (Industry compilation of significant cases)
• Milwaukee (AP) - Secondhand cigarette smoke caused a permanent disability over an eight-year period (1991 AP article-computer printout)
• Oregon state employee granted workers comp benefits in 1985, due to rhinosinusitis/nasal inflammation due to secondhand smoke exposure on the job
• Award to TransWorld Airways employee by Missouri Division of Workers Compensation for secondhand smoke exposure on the job, 1996
• Moody v..Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, 1998 Michigan Workers' Compensation Appellate Commission, decided May 28,1998.
• 19 year old waitress working in a bar dies from asthma attack due to secondhand smoke exposure
• Olympic Airways v. Husain(Man dies from asthma attack caused by secondhand smoke on an Olympic Airways flight)
• Bena v. Massachusetts Turnpike Authority(Total disability case)
• George O'Keefe lung cancer case in Victoria, Australia, 1991
• McLaurin v. City of Pontiac, Michigan (Double-lung transplant, decided March 10,1998)
• Tasmanian policewoman case(Chronic sinusitis from working in smoky police headquarters)
• New York Workers' Compensation Board, 1992 WL224679 (Stenographer suffered rhinitis, sinusitis, pharyngitis and tracheo-bronchitis from working in poorly-ventilated work area)
• Poston v. Smith, Civil Action No. CV94-573 (Sinusitis case, Houston Circuit Court, settled September 17,1996)
• June Mercer (DMV employee)
• Donna Shimp v. New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, 1976

Additional resources

• Secondhand smoke
• Secondhand smoke: some grim news: New studies suggest it's a leading cause of death Cowley, G. Newsweek, Society/Health section. June 11, 1990. Tobacco Institute Bates No. TI13341615

To find more documents like this, try searching on <tdo>search_term=workers compensation ETS</tdo> (ETS stands for "environmental tobacco smoke")