Advocate for tougher anti-smoking laws is losing battle with cancer MARTIN O?HANLON
Tue Aug 16, 4:50 PM ET



OTTAWA (CP) - The woman who won the first successful workers compensation claim for lung cancer caused by second-hand smoke is now losing her long battle with the dreaded disease.

Heather Crowe, who had been in remission, was recently admitted to hospital in Ottawa where she learned the cancer has spread to her liver. She is being tested to find out if it has spread further.

The 60-year-old former waitress developed inoperable lung cancer after working for 40 years in smoke-filled Ottawa restaurants and bars. At the time of her diagnosis three years ago, she was given a 15-per-cent chance of surviving five years.

"There's only so long you can cheat the devil," Crowe said Tuesday. "And I feel I have already cheated him for the past three years. I am happy with the things I have been able to do in that time."

Crowe, who never smoked, filed a claim with the Ontario Workers Safety and Insurance Board and became the first claimant to receive full compensation for lung cancer caused by occupational exposure to cigarette smoke.

She was the subject of a Health Canada advertisement and travelled the country calling on provinces and municipalities to ban smoking in bars, restaurants and other public places.

"Heather has made a world of difference," said Neil Collishaw of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.

"When she was very ill . . . she wrote all of the federal, provincial and territorial ministers of labour, offering to meet with them and requesting that they change their laws so that all workers were protected from second-hand smoke.

"In all but a few jurisdictions, her campaign is succeeding. By next year almost all Canadians will have legal protection from second-hand smoke at work."

Crowe said she's very pleased with the progress that has been made.

"We changed the face of labour by standing up for the rights of workers. But we still need to convince a few more jurisdictions to change their laws and give all workers equal protection from second-hand smoke.

"There is not a single worker in Canada who deserves my fate. There should be no second-class lungs. Every worker deserves first-class protection."

At least 300 people die each year due to second-hand smoke, according to a Health Canada study released in January



only 300 people die each year what happened to the rest of the 400 thousand that the anti's claim die each year or is this just a mis-quote by th health canada study

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20050816/ca_pr_on_he/can...NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl