British nurse loses passive smoking case

doi:10.1136/bmj.316.7145.1625j

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Clare Dyer, legal correspondent

A state enrolled nurse who sued her former employers for compensation in the first passive smoking case to go to court in Britain lost in the High Court in Manchester last week.

Sylvia Sparrow, aged 60, claimed that being forced to work in a “smokers' corner” at an old people's home triggered asthma and respiratory problems (16 May, p 1477). But Mr Justice Holland ruled that St Andrew's Homes Limited, former owners of the Worsley Lodge home in Swinton, Greater Manchester, had done everything practicable, given their staffing levels and the needs of patients, to …