A pro se prisoner filed an appeal of a district court judgment dismissing his civil right suit which alleged, inter alia, that prison officials celled him with smokers in deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated the district court judgment on the secondhand smoke claim, noting that the warden and assistant deputy warden “do not dispute that Brown has a serious medical need for a smoke-free environment or that they knew of this need.  Brown has respiratory problems due to polio and has a medical detail ordering that he be celled with non-smokers.  However, genuine issues of material fact exist concerning whether [the warden and his assistant deputy] exhibited deliberate indifference by failing to take reasonable steps to abate the risk of smoke to Brown’s health as smokers were placed in Brown’s cell at least four times after the medical detail was issued.”

2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 10778 (U.S.C.A. 6th Cir. 2000).