AMA says passive smoking payout inevitable
4 May 2001
Australian Medical Association (AMA) President Dr Kerryn Phelps has called the groundbreaking $466,000 passive smoking award to a Wollongong woman ‘inevitable’, saying it should send a stark warning to all clubs and hotels.
Former barmaid Marlene Sharp, 62, was this week awarded the damages payout after a jury agreed that her throat cancer was caused by passive smoking at her workplace, the Port Kembla RSL club.
Sharp had also sued another former workplace, the Port Kembla Hotel, but that case was settled last year when the hotel agreed to pay her $160,000.
Dr Phelps said the AMA had been saying for years that a case like this would succeed sooner or later.
‘With the evidence on passive smoking now so overwhelming, it was inevitable that a case like this would be brought and would succeed.’
The result prompted renewed calls by anti-smoking lobbyists and health groups for an immediate ban on smoking in clubs and pubs.
‘Hoteliers and bar owners and clubs and pubs and other public venues have no choice but to voluntarily ban smoking in their establishments,’ Dr Phelps said.
‘It is now incumbent upon all State and Territory Governments to review their anti-smoking laws and bring in bans on smoking in all public places, including hotels and clubs, as soon as possible.’
Marlene Sharp, who has never smoked, is currently in remission after undergoing surgery and radiotherapy, but faces a large risk of a secondary cancer occurring.
Last Reviewed: 04 May 2001
