September 2009 | Prisoners could get compensation

The government could face paying out millions of pounds in compensation to prisoners exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, experts have warned.

According to reports in the Daily Express, several non-smoking convicts have lodged human rights complaints after being forced to share cells with smokers.

The ban on smoking in public places does not apply to prisons, so people in jail are not required by law to stop while inside their cells.

However, those who have lodged complaints say this ignores their right not to be exposed to the dangerous chemicals in cigarettes while serving out their sentences.

Brigadier Hugh Monro, new chief inspector of prisons, said he is concerned about the issue.

"In a small number of cases, I have found a prisoner who is a non-smoker sharing a cell with a smoker," he told the publication.

A prisons service spokesperson said staff try to place smokers with other smokers where possible.

Passive smoking has been linked to a number of serious illnesses and conditions - a report published by the Royal College of Physicians in 2004, before the ban on smoking in public was introduced, stated that 5,000 people a year were dying as a result of breathing in second-hand cigarette smoke.

New research by University College London has suggested that the ban may save as many as 40,000 deaths over the next ten years.

Anyone who feels they have been unfairly exposed to tobacco smoke may be eligible to make a claim for compensation as long as it can be proven that the exposure caused an illness and that those responsible for the place of exposure did nothing to combat the risk.