Apple has reportedly voided two warranties because of secondhand smoke. Apparently, the company claims that computers used intensively in rooms full of smoke become dangerous to repair workers and such systems will not be fixed.

At least two people were told that their computers were bio-hazard because they were used by smokers and technicians were not allowed to repair them. What is rather noteworthy is that in both cases end-users owned extended Applecare warranties, which meant that they were eligible for higher quality service. Apple not only reportedly said that smoke damaged the Macintosh personal computers, but also indicated that it was dangerous to repair them.

“They told me that they would take pictures of the computer – both inside and out before determining whether to proceed and that if the only problem was the optical drive, they'd probably just replace it. Dena called me earlier this week to deliver the ‘bad news’. She said that the computer is beyond economical repair due to tar from cigarette smoke! She said the hard drive is about to fail, the optical drive has failed and it isn't feasible to repair the computer under the warranty. This computer is less than 2 years old,” explained one unhappy Apple customer in a conversation with Consumerist web-site.

Needless to say, Apple does not give notices beforehand that it may void warranty if an end-user is a smoker. Moreover, Apple is presently the only company to refuse to repair its computers because of nicotine was in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s list of hazardous substances. Besides, Apple is so far the only company to find out that tar from cigarette smoke could harm personal computers and even cause hard disk drives to “nearly” fail.

Tags: Apple, iMac, macbook