The role of litigation in tobacco control

Abstract

S121 salud pública de méxico / vol.48, suplemento 1 de 2006The role of litigation in tobacco control ARTÍCULO DE REVISIÓN I n the last decade, tobacco litigation has transformed tobacco control, providing another strategy in the tobacco control armentarium for limiting the tobacco industry's activities and providing redress to persons injured by use of tobacco products. One of the most powerful consequences of the recent litigation has been the forced release of the industry's internal docu- AbstractThere is now 50-years of experience in the United States litigating against the tobacco industry. As the base of evidence regarding health effects has evolved and new legal strategies have emerged, successive waves of litigation have occurred. The many failures by the first and second waves were followed by some notable successes in the third. Litigation by flight attendants and the states led to substantial settlements and some beneficial consequences for tobacco control. One of the most significant consequences of state litigation was access to the industry's documents, gained through the Minnesota settlement. These documents further empowered the tobacco control movement and strengthened the basis for legal action. The continuing litigation in the United States remains a threat to the industry, in spite of the mixed outcomes of recent cases. ResumenExiste en los Estados Unidos una experiencia 50 años de litigios contra la industria del tabaco. La base de evidencia recopilada en relación con los efectos de la salud ha respaldado una nueva estrategia legal, lo que a su vez ha desencadenado sucesivas oleadas de conflicto. Los errores de la primera y segunda oleada fueron relevados por algunos éxitos notables en la tercera. Asimismo, los pleitos con asistentes de vuelos y con los estados condujeron al establecimiento substancial de algunos beneficios para controlar el consumo de tabaco. Uno de los resultados más significativos de litigio estatal ganado en el estado de Minnesota fue el acceso a los documentos de la industria. Estos documentos fomentaron el movimiento del control del tabaco y consolidaron la base para su demanda legal. Así, el continuo pleito en los Estados Unidos sigue siendo una amenaza para la industria tabacalera, a pesar de los resultados contradictorios de casos recientes.Palabras clave: litigio; tabaco; control; industria; legal ments that are in depositories in Minneapolis, Minnesota and in Guildford, England and with the exception of the British American Tobacco documents, largely available in electronic data bases accessible on line.

Global Economic and Health Benefits of Tobacco Control: Part 2

“…In the United States, litigation has also proven valuable in advancing tobacco control. Miura and colleagues 14 provide an overview of this complex topic. Three waves of litigation have taken place in the United States, the first beginning in the 1950s with the recognition that smoking causes disease and premature death.…”

A Six-Month Study of Pulmonary Cancer in Albanian Women

“…In an obvious desperate attempt to control smoking in public environments, Albanian government passed an ad hoc bill, on November 2006, which forecasted severe fines applied to smokers; such fines in fact were never collected [20]. The law was stigmatized as the “forgotten law” from the media; but it is not excluded that other legislative or judicial acts might follow in the next future, since the era of litigation aiming to restrict tobacco exposure is surely arrived [21]. Hereby passive smokers and claims of liabilities related to health damages provoked to them are continuously upheld, especially in particular settings such as working places and so forth [22].…”

Product liability

“…In the USA, multimillion-dollar punitive damages, designed to deter others from misbehaving like tobacco companies, are sometimes also available. Similar cases can be brought by victims of secondhand smoke, though establishing causation in cases against tobacco manufacturers has proven extremely difficult; obtaining workers compensation from employers, however, has become fairly routine 2. Injuries from cigarette-caused fires are compensable, since cigarettes with low ignition propensity can easily be manufactured 3.…”