Accomodating Vulnerabilities to Environmental Tobacco Smoke: A Prism for Understanding the ADA

This Article explores the use of the ADA to challenge smoking policies and the fears and questions that such a use raises. We argue that a careful appreciation of the ADA's application to ETS-related claims should temper the worries of both those who see such claims as trivializing the ADA and those who worry that such claims may impose enormous burdens on American businesses. Rather, we suggest that the ADA in this instance, as in others, provides a limited but critical vehicle for ensuring that individuals with disabilities may fully participate in public life. We suggest further that the issues raised by the application of the ADA to ETS provides a useful vehicle for reconsidering the meaning and impact of the ADA and dispelling some of the myths that have surrounded its advent.