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19 March 2009 / Andrew Buchan
Issue: 7361 / Categories: Features , Personal injury , Employment
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The knowledge question

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Will employers pay the price for passive smoking in the workplace? Andrew Buchan reports

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The first studies into injury caused by passive smoking date back to 1982 and involve the link between smoking and cancer for non-smokers living with a smoker. These showed an increased risk to health and were followed by obfuscation and denials of the link by the tobacco industry.

In 1993 the US Environmental Protection Agency published a comprehensive report in which, having reviewed 30 epidemiological studies, found a positive association of passive smoking and lung cancer and classified environmental tobacco smoke as a known human carcinogen. In 1994 air hostesses in Florida were allowed to bring an action against the Phillip Morris tobacco companies for “second-hand smoke”. This case is reported to have settled for £300m in 1996.

Second-hand smoke

A 1997 BMJ editorial entitled “Passive Smoking: History Repeats Itself” sets out the advice from the Royal College of Physicians going back to 1962 warning of the risks associated with passive smoking. The

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