WORKER FILES CLAIM FOR SMOKING WOES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993                   TAG: 9303090242
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
WORKER FILES CLAIM FOR SMOKING WOES
A state employee asked Monday for lost vacation time and payment of medical expenses because of health problems she says were caused by co-workers' cigarette smoke.
Suzanne Bennett testified before the Virginia Worker's Compensation Commission that doctors traced her persistent asthmatic bronchitis to cigarette smoke on the job.
"I believe the problems were caused by smoke. I believe if I did not have smoke around me at that time I would not have bronchitis, just asthma," Bennett testified.
Bennett said she had no history of asthma before last year. Her claim does not say the asthma is necessarily related to smoke.
Assistant Attorney General Lee Melchor said no medical evidence proves Bennett's problems were caused by smoke on the job. Melchor pointed to earlier treatment Bennett received for various respiratory ailments, including a cough.
Deputy Commissioner Mary Ann Link is expected to issue a ruling in about two weeks.
Bennett, 46, lost 257 hours of work at the Virginia Department of Taxation from May to September last year because of smoke-related health problems, said her attorney, Jack Fulton.
Bennett used sick time and vacation to recuperate, and paid medical expenses not covered by insurance.
Fulton said he does not know how much money she could recover in medical claims.
She has worked in the department's data entry section for nine years, all of that time in a large, open room with as many as 90 other employees. Until a new no-smoking policy went into effect in December, smokers and nonsmokers were separated only by an aisle, Bennett testified.
"There was about 50 or 60 people who smoked," she said.
The room's windows are sealed, she said.
A recurring cough appeared last spring and worsened until she was hospitalized in May, Bennett said.
The barking cough and occasional difficulty breathing would clear up over the weekend and during periods she was out sick, Bennett said. The problems reappeared when she went back to work, she said.
"By Friday sometimes I would only be able to work a half-day or not come in at all because the smoke would just build up. . . . There was nowhere for the air to go."
At one point her superiors bought her a device similar to a gas mask that filtered smoke. Bennett testified that although the device appeared to help it was very heavy and uncomfortable and she was unable to wear it all day.
Bennett said in an interview that she has suffered no respiratory problems since the new no-smoking policy went into effect.
Smoking regulations differ between state agencies, but all must adhere to a statewide law on indoor smoking passed last year.
Bennett's case is the first time a Virginia state employee has sought compensation for damages from secondhand smoke, said Anne Morrow Donley, executive director of the Virginia Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public, or GASP.
"It will have far-reaching effects whether she wins or loses," Donley said. "It opens doors for others to try."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB