ANTI-SMOKING campaigners welcomed today’s a landmark court decision in which a jury ruled a woman had contracted throat cancer after enduring years of passive smoke while working as barmaid in a club.

The NSW Supreme Court decision was ten years overdue and proved people could successfully sue employers for passive smoking, said Brian McBride, President of the Non-smokers’ Movement of Australia. “It means for the first time passive smoking is clearly winnable as a case against employers for subjecting people to passive smoking,” he said. “It should lead to many more cases particularly in the hospitality industry amongst hotels and clubs.” The outcome would speed up steps to ban smoking from all workplaces he said. “From September this year all dining areas in hotels and clubs have to be positively segregated and totally non-smoking, that was leaving the bar areas somewhat in doubt, but I think this verdict will speed up the process of extending the bans into the bar areas,” said Mr McBride. The decision should also encourage the State Government to strengthen legislation. “They could tighten the legislation that’s going to apply in September to just make it beyond any doubt,” Mr McBride said.

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