California IN BRIEF : FRESNO : Ruling on Smoking Might Be Appealed

Fresno County may ask the state Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that people whose breathing is bothered by tobacco smoke can be declared physically disabled if they must work around smokers. In a decade-old case, the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that the state Commission of Fair Employment and Housing did not abuse its discretion by finding that two county employees were handicapped. “To most people, tobacco smoke is merely irritating, distasteful or discomforting,” the court of appeal brief said. “Someone who suffers from a respiratory disorder and whose ability to breathe is severely limited by tobacco smoke is, nevertheless, physically handicapped within the meaning of the (Fair Employment and Housing) Act.” The appellate ruling will have no practical effect on Fresno County’s current practices because smoking was banned in all offices in 1983, said Deputy County Counsel J. Wesley Merritt. That was two years after welfare workers Danyse Brooks and Camille Capo accused the county of discriminating against them.