[Intl-tobacco] First Damage Suit Filed Over Indirect Smoking (S. Korea)

[Robert Weissman]

First Damage Suit Filed Over Indirect Smoking
by Park Yoon-bae /   Staff Reporter
Source: Korea Daily  (Hankook Ilbo), Tuesday, 5/16/00

  Parents of a dead 30-year-old female worker from the Pusan branch of the
National Agricultural Cooperatives Federation (NACF) launched a court
battle over second-hand smoking, claiming that their daughter died of
asthma complicated by indirect smoking at her workplace.

  The victim's family filed a lawsuit with the administrative court in
Seoul on Monday, demanding compensation for her death because it was
apparently related with second-hand smoking.

  The lawsuit is drawing keen attention because it is the first time a
damage suit has been filed over second-hand smoking in Korea.

  Currently, a trial on first-hand smoking is under way in a damage suit
against the government and the Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Corp. (KT&G).  
Thirty-one sick smokers and their family members are demanding 307 million
won ($260,000) in compensation.

  The woman, identified only as Kim, died of dyspnea, or difficulty in
breeding, as a result of complications from asthma in February.

  She was reported to have worked for the NACF over the past 10 years.

  Kim's parents demanded in the lawsuit that the state-run Korea Labor
Welfare Corp. compensate for her daughter's death since her asthma
developed into a fatal disease after being exposed to second hand smoke at
her workplace.

  The plaintiffs claimed that Kim's death should be recognized as an
industrial mishap arising from second-hand smoking in the NACF's branch,
where both workers and clients are free to smoke anywhere, anytime.

  Legal experts said the court battle will focus on the definition of
second-hand smoking and the seriousness of its health risks and damage to
non-smokers.

  They also stressed that Kim's family will have to prove that their
deceased daughter was exposed to a fatal level of smoke at the workplace.

  In addition, the plaintiffs are expected to meet with a tough task of
proving that the death of their daughter had a direct link with indirect
smoking.

  In the United States, a group of flight attendants won an agreement on a
$300 million compensation from the cigarette maker Philip Morris in 1997
in a damage suit over second-hand smoking.