Man Sues Wife to Stop Her Smoking
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CHICAGO — Retired Col. Richard J. Thomas has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court here, asking a judge to declare the smoke from his wife Sally’s cigarettes a cancer-causing pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act.
Thomas, 69, quit smoking 12 years ago. He blames cigarettes for the deaths of both of his parents, and says he has tried any number of strategies to get his wife of 43 years to quit.
Thomas says he filed the Aug. 21 lawsuit because he loves his wife. She has refused to talk about her husband’s lawsuit, but Thomas acknowledged that she was not happy about it.
Environmental tobacco smoke is not regulated by the Clean Air Act, said Phillipa Cannon of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chicago office.
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