Two nonsmoking workers whose lung ailments were aggravated by cigarette smoke at their workplace were awarded over $70,000 when the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission found that the Fresno County Department of Social Services did not make a reasonable accommodation to their needs for a smoke-free work environment.  The commission concluded that the employees’ hypersensitivity to tobacco smoke constituted a physical handicap within the meaning of the FEH Act and that they had suffered “significant injury” as a result of the county’s refusal to accommodate their physical handicaps.

FEP 421:664, No. 84-27, (1987).