Albritton filed a 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 action, alleging that the defendant prison officials forced him into a smoking pod. The district court dismissed his claims for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The court ruled that Albritton, having admitted that he was in the smoking pod for two days before being placed in a non-smoking unit, failed to demonstrate that due to the exposure to secondhand smoke that he has sustained a serious or significant mental or physical injury and that the prison officials were deliberately indifferent to such health threats. The court also ruled that Albritton failed to show that he was exposed to unreasonably high levels of secondhand smoke.
2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27517 (U.S.D.C. W.D. Va. 2005).