A flight attendant lost a lawsuit claiming she got lung cancer from breathing secondhand smoke while she worked inside airplane cabins.

Gail Routh, 54, was exposed to thousands of hours of secondhand smoke over her 27-year career with Allegheny Airlines and US Airways, said Stuart Silver, the attorney representing Routh against Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco and Brown & Williams Tobacco Corp.

But a state court jury on Tuesday did not find that Routh's exposure to smoke was a legal cause of her medical problems, which also include chronic sinusitis and bronchitis, although jurors did find that exposure to secondhand smoke may cause lung cancer.

``To say there was some other cause is quite surprising,'' Silver said. ``This is a woman who was healthy as could be when she started working in 1972, a lifetime nonsmoker who had no medical problems. Everything points to secondhand smoke as the cause.''

Ronald Milstein, Lorillard's general counsel, said the evidence showed that Routh's exposure was not a contributing factor to her cancer.

``Medical evidence made it clear that Ms. Routh was genetically predisposed to contract the type of cancer from which she suffers,'' he said.

Silver said he is reviewing options for appeal.

Routh was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and had two-thirds of her right lung removed. She entered remission, but was re-diagnosed with cancer last year, Silver said.

In 1997, the tobacco industry reached a $349 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by flight attendants, claiming secondhand smoke was the cause of cancer and other respiratory illnesses they suffered. The deal allows attendants to bring individual cases, but barred them from seeking punitive damages.

US airlines banned smoking on domestic flights in 1990 and on international flights in 1997.

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