🚀 go-pugleaf

by AMANDA DUNN
AUSTRALIA;ETS
Source: The Age, Saturday, 7/28/01

A state payout to a teacher whose pre-existing lung condition
became a serious illness through passive smoking in staff rooms
was a significant development, lawyers said yesterday.

Owen Brown, 54, was allowed to seek damages for pain and
suffering and loss of income from the State Government after
County Court judge Warren Fagan found a causal link between
Mr Brown's chronic illness and passive smoking at three
schools he taught at during his 30-year career.

Details of the payout, which was settled out of court, are
confidential between the parties.

Mr Brown's solicitor, Michael Glen of Rennick Briggs, said
Mr Brown's case was unusual due to his pre-existing medical
condition being aggravated by passive smoking.

While he did not believe the case would open the floodgates for
passive smoking cases, Mr Glen said that cases with similar
medical support may succeed in the future.

Mr Brown, who is married with a child, was now gravely ill and
awaiting a double lung transplant, Mr Glen said. He struggled to
walk more than a few metres at a time and has not worked since
November.

WorkCover spokesman Brendan Wood said this was the first
time a Victorian teacher had won a passive smoking payout.

Vice-president of the Australian Education Union, Brian
Henderson, said the union would support any teacher with a
similar case because schools had a responsibility to provide
a safe work environment.

A spokesman for the Education Department refused to comment on
the case, but Premier Steve Bracks yesterday conceded there was
a chance the government could be faced with more passive smoking
lawsuits from teachers and other government workers.

But he said the government was proud of its recent record in
banning smoking in many public areas and that it intended to find
ways to further reduce passive smoking.

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And the clock continues to tick, tick, tick.


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