On 29 December, 2011, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story about a Sydney lawyer by the name of Peter Levac.
Levac knew that cigarette smoke emitted by the chain-smoking residents of the apartment below his own was entering his apartment and made numerous attempts to try to stop it, including approaching the neighbours, the body corporate, strata title management and the tenancy tribunal. All these attempts failed, and he and his wife subsequently moved.
In 2008, Levac was diagnosed with and treated for lung cancer which his surgeon advised was, on the balance of probabilities, caused by passive smoking.
Levac is now planning action against the people he feels caused his lung cancer - the smokers, the body corporate and the strata management company.
It will be of interest to see how this action, if mounted, is received. If successful, it may open avenues for others who have contracted lung cancer as a result of passive smoking to be compensated for their illness - this in itself may be sufficient to alert smokers, bodies corporate and strata management companies to the fact that smoke drift is an issue to be taken seriously and addressed accordingly rather than ignored.