[Intl-tobacco] New Zealand: ACC to cover effects of passive smoking (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

ACC to cover effects of passive smoking
[ACC = Accidents Compensation Corporation - ed.]
Source: Independent Newspapers Ltd. / STUFF, 2001-10-03

Workers who suffer disease or disability from second-hand smoke will be
eligible for compensation under changes to ACC due to be passed in April.

Smokefree Coalition director Leigh Sturgiss said extension of ACC cover to
people whose health was damaged by second-hand smoke was recognition of
the dangers of passive smoking, which killed 400 New Zealanders a year.

But she said it would be difficult for claimants to prove they had been
subject to second-hand smoke.

Such people could have some form of heart failure, a stroke or lung
damage. It would take a very committed person to take on ACC while living
with a potentially life-threatening complaint, she said.

But Victoria University senior law lecturer and ACC expert John Millar
said he was encouraged by the move to put the effects of second-hand
smoking back under ACC cover.

"You meet the relatively strict requirements, you will get accident
compensation, which is a far better thing I think . . . there's so many
things with litigation, you have to prove fault, you have to be prepared
to spend two to three years on litigation with costs etc - it would
probably cost $20,000 to $30,000 to sue.

"The problem is, the ACC scheme has been mangled by politicians so the
compensation is no longer as good as it once was, (but) that's going to be
improved by this bill."