[Intl-tobacco] Israel: Worker made sicker by passive smoke recognized as work accident victim

[Robert Weissman]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/657281.html

Haaretz

Last update - 07:38 13/12/2005

Worker made sicker by passive smoke recognized as work accident victim
By Eynav Ben Yehuda

A worker whose medical condition worsened due to "passive smoking"
(namely exposure to the smoke of other peoples' cigarettes) shall be
classed as a victim of a work accident, the Tel Aviv Labor Tribunal
ruled Monday.

Arie Cramer, 60, represented by attorney Alon Luria, has fulfilled an
administrative task at the Transport Ministry since 1970. In 1997 he was
moved to a new building. His new office was across from a lobby,
occupied by a secretary who smoked heavily. The window and door of his
office opened into the lobby and the smoke from her cigarettes entered
his office.

That year the plaintiff came down with the flu. He returned to work but
couldn't get better, because the smoke bothered him. The secretary
rejected his pleas that she stop smoking in the workplace. She continued
to smoke and none of her superiors ordered her to stop.

Cramer even contacted an occupational specialist at the Maccabi health
services, and a doctor at the Health Ministry, who ruled that smoking at
a workplace is illegal and that the smoke could harm him. After that a
special room was designated as a smoking zone. But that room, which was
used by many workers, also opened into the same lobby. Also, when he
left his office, he found workers smoking throughout the workplace,
which was saturated with smoke.

After being exposed to heavy smoke for a year and a half, Cramer
petitioned to be recognized as a victim of a work accident. He claimed
his condition, a chronic throat inflammation, had been exacerbated by
his exposure to his colleagues' smoke.

The National Insurance Institute denied the correlation between his
condition and the workplace, claiming it was based on his existing
medical condition. It also said the influence of the workplace on
development of his disease had been of far lesser importance than other
factors.

But Cramer came to court armed with an expert opinion that his exposure
to heavy smoking had caused him micro-traumas, which created his
disease. Cramer had had sensitivity in his brachial tubes, but exposure
to the cigarettes was responsible for worsening his condition, the
expert ruled.

The expert calculated that 50 percent of the deterioration of his
condition was due to the workplace, both to cigarettes and to smog in
the industrial zone where his office was located.

The court reminded the courtroom that a work accident can happen by
cause, or by exacerbation. Cramer proved to the court's satisfaction
that his condition had been worsened by prolonged exposure to cigarette
smoke, and therefore, the court ruled, his condition could be defined as
a work accident.