A 19-year-old Michigan woman died of an asthma attack at the bar where she worked, and an autopsy concluded that the fatal incident was triggered by secondhand smoke, the Detroit Free Press reported Feb. 9.

The case is believed to be the first showing that acute secondhand-smoke exposure can led to the death of an adult. "This is a very dramatic case," said Ken Rosenman of the Michigan State University College of Medicine, who reported on the incident in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. "The other associations have been with chronic exposure. This is the first time someone dropped dead right there."

The Michigan House of Representatives has approved legislation to ban most indoor smoking, but the legislation has been stalled in the state Senate. "I have a granddaughter who has asthma. If you've ever seen an attack, it's not a pretty thing," said State Sen. Ray Basham, who is sponsoring the legislation. "We're losing 3,000 people a year in Michigan to secondhand smoke."

But Andy Deloney, a spokesperson for the Michigan Restaurant Association, said, "If you want to talk about banning smoking because of this unfortunate incident, then let's ban smoking, period. Don't say we're going to take away your individual choices in bars and restaurants but you can go into a tribal casino and smoke."