Apple: Smoking Bad for Computer Technicians

The Consumerist reports two cases in which Mac owners have been denied repair service covered under their extended warranties first by the service agent followed by Apple corporate because of smoking. While Apple hasn’t made any official comment on the matter, those filing complaints with the Consumerist say Apple claims that the PCs have been exposed to second-hand smoke and are potentially contaminated with known carcinogens.

Smoking is not listed as one of the things that could void a Mac standard or extended warranty. However, Apple is a California company, which has some of the most stringent environmental and health codes in the country. The Mac owners were also told by their service agents that nicotine and carbon monoxide are known cancer-causing agents by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, making it a federal case.

PC users–whether home or corporate–will often do stupid things to their machines. As noted in Channel Insider’s Stupid PC User Tricks, end users have an inexhaustible capacity to damage their PCs with dunks in pools, dropping units and pounding keyboards with their fists. Voiding warranties isn’t uncommon for acts that are intentional or beyond reasonable accidents. But contamination with cigarette residue is a new justification.

The question is, Do other solution providers feel threatened by machines owned or used by smokers? Should this be enough to void a service warranty? Or is this just a smoke screen to weed out some contractual obligations?