Plaintiff filed a pro se complaint, alleging that he was “often” subjected to heavy concentrations of cigarette smoke for periods of “at least forty-five minutes” on several occasions in 1995 when he was held in a detention facility awaiting trial.  The Court (Patterson, J.) granted the Defendant’s motion to dismiss, holding that the Plaintiff “has not alleged facts showing that the deprivation (of his Constitutional rights) alleged is sufficiently serious for a due process violation.”  The Court also held that the “conditions complained of by Plaintiff, forty-five minutes at a time in a smoke-filled cell on an unspecified number of occasions for no more than a little over a month, do not constitute an extended period of time and they do not approach the level of harm in Helling.”

95 Civ. 6853 (RPP), U.S. Dist. Ct., So. Dist. NY, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10771.