[Intl-tobacco] Woman wins passive smoking test case

[Robert Weissman]

Sydney Morning Herald
May 2, 2001
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0105/02/update/news13.html

Woman wins passive smoking test case

                         A woman contracted throat cancer because of years
of passive smoking she endured
                         during her employment as a barmaid in NSW, a
court decided today.

                         Marlene Sharp, 63, sued the Port Kembla RSL for
negligence claiming her cancer
                         was caused by years of breathing other people's
smoke while working at the club
                         between 1984 and 1985.

                         The four-man Supreme Court jury took about four
hours to decide the club had
                         been negligent and awarded her more than $450,000
in damages.

                         In legal argument following the jury's verdict,
Mrs Sharp's barrister, Mr Peter
                         Semmler, QC, said the result was a world first.

                         "This is the first time in the world that anyone
has been awarded damages for cancer
                         caused by environmental tobacco smoke," he said.

                         Mr Semmler said the first case of this type was
heard in the United States in April
                         this year but was unsuccessful.

                         Mrs Sharp, a non-smoker, told the jury that about
80 per cent of the patrons at the
                         Port Kembla RSL Club, in Wollongong, were
smokers. She worked at the club
                         from 1984 to 1995.

                         "The smoke seemed to rise and come straight at
me. There were people sitting,
                         smoking, drinking, exhaling. Cigarettes in the
ashtrays burning away. It wasn't very
                         nice," Mrs Sharp said.

                         Mrs Sharp first noticed a lump in her neck in May
1995. It was diagnosed as
                         malignant cancer of the larynx and she underwent
surgery and radiotherapy.

                         She is in remission but doctors have told Mrs
Sharp there is a high risk of her
                         developing a secondary cancer, probably in the
lungs.

                         Because her epiglottis was removed she had
problems swallowing food, could not
                         drink hot liquids, coughed uncontrollably at
times, and woke up with a choking
                         sensation during the night, her lawyer, Mr
Semmler, said.

                         Mrs Sharp said she "hates the smell of smoke" but
was often surrounded by it.
                         "She has never smoked voluntarily but she was an
involuntary smoker of large
                         quantities of other people's cigarette smoke," Mr
Semmler said.

                         When she wasn't working behind the bar, she was
emptying ashtrays and picking up
                         glasses.

                         "She was exposed to large amounts of smoke, many
of the patrons would sit on
                         stools, a lot of their smoke was exhaled straight
into her face as she walked back and
                         forth along the bar serving drinks," he said.