"Philip Morris ordered to pay $300 million to smoker"

[mariomike]

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Florida jury on Thursday ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.":
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/091120/us/usreport_us_philipmorris_award

 

[CBH99]

Hey,

I think I have a new life plan.  I have it all figured out!!

I'm going to go out, and buy a package of cigarettes.  20 cigarrettes in a pack.  And I'm going to smoke a pack of those just about every day, for years & years & years.

Burning hundreds of toxic chemicals at once, and sucking those fumes into my lungs??  Who cares.

Ignoring the big warning on every pack that says "Hey, this will...give you cancer, hurt your baby, make you impotent, cause strokes & tumours, give you gum disease, etc, etc."  Because hey, ya know what?  Giant warnings are for sissies.

And, I'm going to do it every single day of my life.  For years and years and years.

And then...the next time my bank account is getting a bit low, I know.  I'm going to sue the people that manufacture them!!  Because how dare they sell me such an unsafe product!! 

Seriously...I don't understand.  Your purchasing a product that consists of you sucking in hundreds of burning chemicals.  There are warning labels all over the package, warning you of the various health risks.  You choose to purchase and use this product, despite these warnings.  And then you sue the manufacturer because you get sick?? 

Its called natural selection lady, sorry.

**Yupp.  A wee bit bitter today folks.  Sorry for the rant, but it felt good to vent on something!*

 

[Michael OLeary]

Can you provide any government or industry warnings about the health hazards or addictive nature of smoking from when the woman probably started smoking?  Perhaps 40 years ago?

 

[KnightShift]

1965 according to the article found here:

http://healthliteracy.worlded.org/docs/tobacco/Unit1/2history_of.html

300 billion of these "coffin nails" produced yearly in 1944....wow

 

[Dennis Ruhl]

Can you provide any government or industry warnings about the health hazards or addictive nature of smoking from when the woman probably started smoking?  Perhaps 40 years ago?

Warnings - actually 45 years ago in the US. (I guess the printed warning happened in 1965)

In 1964, the US Surgeon General reported that smoking cigarettes caused lung cancer. Following this, advertising tobacco was banned from television and radio and tobacco companies were made to print health warnings on the packets of their cigarette brand.

http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/history-of-smoking.php

 

[SeanNewman]

Michael,

The writing was on the wall even then.  Do a quick Google search for "Surgeon General Smoking Readers Digest".

As early as the 60s and even 50s the facts were available.  No they weren't as in your face as a picture of a bleeding brain on the pack, but it wasn't like the 30s when you'd see ads like:

 

[eurowing]

In the 70's our ration packs came with 10 (IIRC) cigarettes as a daily ration. I did not smoke (other than the pack of Sportsman's I bought when I was 12) until I joined up.  The warning I heard most as a kid....  "they will stunt your growth"  That and when you are young and invincible...  anyway, 30 years later...  finally an ex-smoker.  When you are young, one does not go looking for reasons to stop doing things you think are fun. 
That being said....  punishing a corporation for things done 50 years ago..  I don't know, it is beyond me,  but I am not sure I agree with it.

 

[PMedMoe]

Just as stupid as the woman suing McDonald's for her coffee being too hot.  :

Only in the good ol' U.S. of A.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Only in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Not so fast,.......................your "leaders" are asking for the same thing.
At least this woman wasn't earning lots of tax dollars from the company she then sued.


http://news.guelphmercury.com/Wire/News_Wire/National/article/547646
The province of Ontario recently filed a $50 billion lawsuit against a dozen Canadian firms and their parent companies, including Imperial Tobacco Co., over smoking-related health costs.

 

[40below]

I don't know how those lawsuits are even begun to be proved. It's well-established that smokers pay for their own health care through tobacco taxes and are actually a nice little cottage industry by paying for other people's too as we tend not to live long enough to rack up the kind of medical bills associated with late-stage degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's - on average. 90 per cent of medical costs are incurred in the last year of life. Quitting smoking - or never starting - does add a few years to your life, but all those years come at the end.

 

[mariomike]

"Big Hypocrisy in Ontario's pursuit of Big Tobacco: Tobacco companies are the last refuge from which government can squeeze an endless supply of money.":
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/09/30/raphael-alexander-big-hypocrisy-in-ontario-s-pursuit-of-big-tobacco.aspx

 

[Dennis Ruhl]

Bankrupting big tobacco with unreasonably large lawsuits will accomplish nothing.  The Mohawks will have all the business instead of half in Ontario and Quebec.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Mohawks+gangs+tobacco/1437136/story.html

Good luck on taxing the Mohawks.