The cigarette smokers where Pamela Pechan works have her more than just fuming.
Pechan, 32, an office manager of an Oak Brook computer company, filed suit in Du Page County Circuit Court this week alleging that her employers were making her ill and violating the Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act.
Pechan`s suit charges that some supervisors and other employees of DynaPro Inc. have disregarded the law`s prohibitions against smoking in public places.
Besides asking that DynaPro obey the state regulations, her suit seeks protection against retribution and a $25,000 judgment for the physical harm she says she has suffered.
”I`ve been trying and trying to get them to help,” Pechan said, referring to company officials. ”But they haven`t done a thing.”
A spokesman for DynaPro said the company had not yet been served with the suit and had no comment.
According to the law, which took effect in July 1990, smoking in a public building is restricted to enclosed places.
But Janet Williams, director of communications with the Chicago Lung Association, said the law fails to define an enclosed place.
”It`s open-ended and can be left open to interpretation,” said Williams, who added she thinks Pechan`s suit is the first court test of the law.
According to Pechan`s complaint in court, cigarette smoke at DynaPro has caused her ”difficulty in breathing and sleeping, swelling sinuses” and stress. She also says her complaints to superiors have resulted in her being denied raises and reviews for advancement.
Pechan said that after the company disregarded her pleas, she complained to county officials.
Glenn Filip, an investigator with the Du Page County Health Department, wrote to DynaPro on Nov. 4, saying that an inspection on Oct. 31 found that the company ”was in violation of the Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act.”
Filip threatened to turn the matter over to the state`s attorney if the matter was not corrected.
He said Wednesday that Health Department officials met with executives from DynaPro and that the company was modifying its ventilation system in the office.
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”We`re waiting to see if the steps are going to correct the problem,”
Filip said.
Filip said the Health Department has received 179 complaints since the law took effect. He said warning letters have been sent to 30 companies.
But only two companies have been called in for conferences, he said. DynaPro was one of them.
Filip said that many of the violations stem from a lack of awareness of the law and the act`s ambiguous wording, and that the state`s attorney`s office has not yet been asked to intervene in any of the cases.