Tobacco manufacturers’ defence against plaintiffs’ claims of cancer causation: throwing mud at the wall and hoping some of it will stick
May 7th, 2014
An extensive body of research has existed for many years, showing that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, other cancers, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and many other illnesses.1,2,3 Despite this large volume of evidence, it has only been in recent years that tobacco manufacturers have admitted, to varying degrees, that smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases.
In this paper, we examine tobacco company arguments about whether their products caused cancer in plaintiffs who filed lawsuits against the companies. In order to understand the context in which these arguments have been presented to judges and juries, it is important to review the public admissions that these companies have made in regards to the adverse health effects of tobacco use.
The Liggett Group, Inc was the first cigarette company to admit unconditionally that smoking is harmful to health.4 Liggett (now part of the Vector Group Ltd) currently sells Eve, Pyramid, and Liggett Select cigarettes, and several generic or private‐ label brands in 1999 the company sold its well‐ known Chesterfield, L& M, and Lark brands to Philip Morris. In a March 1997 settlement of lawsuits filed against the company by 22 state attorneys general, Bennett LeBow, the chief executive officer of Liggett, agreed to the following statement 5
“ We at Liggett know and acknowledge that, as the Surgeon General and respected medical researchers have found, cigarette smoking causes health problems, including lung cancer, heart and vascular disease and emphysema. We at Liggett also know and acknowledge that, as the Surgeon General, the Food and Drug Administration and respected medical researchers have found, nicotine is addictive.”
In October 1999, Philip Morris USA— the leading US cigarette manufacturer and the maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson & Hedges, Merit, and many other cigarette brands— made the following announcement on its website
“ There is an overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers. Smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than non‐ smokers. There is no ‘ safe’ cigarette. These are and have been the messages of public health authorities worldwide. Smokers and potential smokers should rely on these messages in making all smoking‐ related decisions.” 6
That statement did not indicate clearly whether the company agreed with the medical and scientific consensus on causation. Indeed, in a response to a shareholder’s resolution on this subject, a letter sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of Philip Morris (dated 10 February 2000) stated “ Mr. Neuhauser’s letter mischaracterizes the Company’s web site as constituting a public admission that cigarettes cause illness. It does not.” 7
Eliminating the ambiguity in its earlier admission, Philip Morris placed informational inserts in 28 major newspapers in the United States (including the New York Times and USA Today) on 13– 17 November 2002, stating “ We agree with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other serious diseases in smokers.” 8 A similar statement has appeared on the company’s website since then.9,10
As early as August 2002, RJ Reynolds (RJR)— maker of Winston, Salem, Camel, and many other cigarette brands— stated on its website “ We produce a product that has significant and inherent health risks for a number of serious diseases, and may contribute to causing these diseases in some individuals.” 11 The words “ may” and “ in some individuals” weakened the RJR admission in comparison to Philip Morris’s most recent admission. Now RJR’s website states “ R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (R.J. Reynolds) believes that smoking, in combination with other factors, causes disease in some individuals.” 12 In this latest version of the company’s admission, “ may contribute to causing” was changed to “ causes,” but “ in combination with other factors” was added.
The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (B& W), a long‐ time subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT), has manufactured several well‐ known cigarette brands, including Kool, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Tareyton, and Viceroy. The US operations of B& W merged with RJR in July 2004, under a new parent company, Reynolds American Inc. Pre‐ merger URLs for the B& W website ( and ) are now directed to the RJR website.
B& W’s pre‐ merger website, as far back as April 2001,13 included a lengthy and rather tortured statement explaining the “ Evolution of Brown & Williamson’s Position on Smoking & Disease” . According to this history (1) the company had accepted for many years that “ smoking is a major risk factor for many diseases” (2) B& W revised its position in 1997, stating that, “ far from denying that smoking causes disease, there are serious risks associated with smoking and that smoking may cause certain diseases” (3) the company revised its website during 1999 and 2000 because B& W “ still had not achieved its goal of clear communication” and “ its position was still misunderstood” and (4) “ As reflected in Brown & Williamson’s web site today, its scientists have concluded that, assessing all of the scientific evidence together, the best judgment is that smoking is a cause of disease.” Elsewhere on its website, under the heading “ Smoking and Disease,” 13 B& W stated “ in the most simple and commonly understood sense, smoking is a cause of certain diseases.” In other words, during this evolutionary process, the company moved from “ risk factor” to “ may cause certain diseases” to “ is a cause of certain diseases” .
Lorillard Tobacco Company manufactures Newport, Kent, True, Old Gold, and other cigarette brands. As early as August 2003, Lorillard’s chairman and chief executive officer Martin Orlowsky offered the following on its website
“ Several years ago, Lorillard publicly promised the Congress of the United States that it would not engage in any public debate over statements of the United States Surgeon General or any other public health authorities regarding smoking and health.  Consistent with that promise, Lorillard has not publicly stated its position on smoking and health except when called upon to do so in litigation… . I n the course of such litigation in the past few years, I have been asked what advice I would give to a smoker or potential smoker who might ask me about the health consequences they faced if they chose to smoke. Were that to happen, this is what I would say
‘ All cigarettes are dangerous and smoking can cause serious diseases, including lung cancer. Cigarette smoking can also be addictive. Lorillard supports the continuing efforts of public health authorities to inform the public about the dangers of smoking. Lorillard believes that the public should pay attention to and rely upon the Surgeon General’s warning printed on every cigarette package and in every cigarette advertisement, as well as the wealth of other information provided by public health authorities in making informed decisions about smoking.’” 14,15
The conditional language in some of the admissions by these cigarette companies mirrors their answers to questions posed in the pre‐ trial process in the US Depart
ment of Justice’s civil lawsuit against the companies. A report prepared for Congressman Henry Waxman found that four of the five major cigarette companies “ failed to admit without qualification that smoking causes disease” .16
US Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC) is the world’s leading producer and marketer of moist snuff products, including Skoal and Copenhagen. The company does not include on its website ( /) an admission about the adverse health effects of smokeless tobacco use, like the admissions described above on cigarette company websites. Instead, it includes several statements made to legislative and regulatory bodies asserting that smokeless tobacco use should be embraced as a “ harm reduction” strategy for reducing cigarette smoking. Their website includes a USSTC petition to the Federal Trade Commission that states “ it is USSTC’s position that smokeless tobacco has not been shown to be a cause of any human disease.” 17
This review of tobacco company admissions indicates that the major US‐ based cigarette manufacturers now admit, to varying degrees along the continuum from risk factor to cause, that cigarette smoking is related to lung cancer and other diseases. These admissions raise the question as to whether the companies have conceded that their products have caused (or have contributed to the causation of) cancer or other diseases in specific individuals. This paper examines the following research question how have tobacco manufacturers defended themselves in personal injury lawsuits against charges that their products caused cancer in individual plaintiffs?
Most sold brand of cigarettes – taxes as a % of price – value added tax by country – data from quandl
Cheap+cigarette&find_loc=bensenville%2c+il san francisco
Country Level Units As Of Country Page Afghanistan 0.00 % of price 2010 Albania 17.00 % of price 2010 Algeria 15.00 % of price 2010 Angola 9.00 % of price 2008 Antigua and Barbuda 7.00 % of price 2010 Argentina 7.00 % of price 2010 Armenia 4.00 % of price 2010 Australia 9.00 % of price 2010 Austria 17.00 % of price 2010 Azerbaijan 15.00 % of price 2010 Bahrain 0.00 % of price 2010 Bangladesh 15.00 % of price 2010 Barbados 13.00 % of price 2010 Belarus 17.00 % of price 2010 Belgium 17.00 % of price 2010 Belize 11.00 % of price 2010 Benin 15.00 % of price 2010 Bolivia 13.00 % of price 2010 Bosnia and Herzegovina 15.00 % of price 2010 Botswana 9.00 % of price 2010 Brazil 25.00 % of price 2010 Brunei 0.00 % of price 2010 Bulgaria 17.00 % of price 2010 Burkina Faso 15.00 % of price 2010 Burundi 15.00 % of price 2010 Cambodia 9.00 % of price 2010 Cameroon 9.00 % of price 2010 Canada 9.00 % of price 2010 Cape Verde 13.00 % of price 2010 Central African Republic 16.00 % of price 2010 Chad 15.00 % of price 2010 Chile 16.00 % of price 2010 China 15.00 % of price 2010 Colombia 10.00 % of price 2010 Comoros 9.00 % of price 2010 Congo 0.00 % of price 2010 Congo Brazzaville 16.00 % of price 2010 Costa Rica 12.00 % of price 2010 Croatia 19.00 % of price 2010 Cuba 0.00 % of price 2008 Cyprus 13.00 % of price 2010 Czech Republic 17.00 % of price 2010 Denmark 20.00 % of price 2010 Djibouti 0.00 % of price 2010 Dominica 13.00 % of price 2010 Dominican Republic 14.00 % of price 2010 Ecuador 11.00 % of price 2010 Egypt 0.00 % of price 2010 El Salvador 12.00 % of price 2010 Equatorial Guinea 16.00 % of price 2008 Eritrea 11.00 % of price 2010 Estonia 17.00 % of price 2010 Ethiopia 12.00 % of price 2010 Fiji 0.00 % of price 2008 Finland 19.00 % of price 2010 France 16.00 % of price 2010 Gabon 15.00 % of price 2010 Gambia 14.00 % of price 2010 Georgia 15.00 % of price 2010 Germany 16.00 % of price 2010 Ghana 13.00 % of price 2010 Greece 19.00 % of price 2010 Grenada 13.00 % of price 2010 Guatemala 11.00 % of price 2010 Guinea 15.00 % of price 2010 Guinea Bissau 13.00 % of price 2010 Guyana 5.00 % of price 2010 Honduras 13.00 % of price 2010 Hungary 20.00 % of price 2010 Iceland 20.00 % of price 2010 India 17.00 % of price 2010 Indonesia 8.00 % of price 2010 Iran 13.00 % of price 2010 Iraq 0.00 % of price 2010 Ireland 17.00 % of price 2010 Israel 14.00 % of price 2010 Italy 17.00 % of price 2010 Ivory Coast 13.00 % of price 2010 Jamaica 15.00 % of price 2010 Japan 5.00 % of price 2010 Jordan 14.00 % of price 2010 Kazakhstan 11.00 % of price 2010 Kenya 14.00 % of price 2010 Kiribati 0.00 % of price 2010 Kuwait 0.00 % of price 2010 Kyrgyzstan 11.00 % of price 2010 Laos 9.00 % of price 2010 Latvia 17.00 % of price 2010 Lebanon 9.00 % of price 2010 Lesotho 13.00 % of price 2010 Liberia 7.00 % of price 2010 Libya 0.00 % of price 2010 Lithuania 17.00 % of price 2010 Luxembourg 13.00 % of price 2010 Macedonia 15.00 % of price 2010 Madagascar 17.00 % of price 2010 Malawi 14.00 % of price 2008 Malaysia 5.00 % of price 2010 Maldives 0.00 % of price 2010 Mali 15.00 % of price 2010 Malta 15.00 % of price 2010 Mauritania 12.00 % of price 2010 Mauritius 13.00 % of price 2010 Mexico 14.00 % of price 2010 Moldova 17.00 % of price 2010 Mongolia 9.00 % of price 2010 Montenegro 15.00 % of price 2010 Morocco 16.00 % of price 2008 Mozambique 15.00 % of price 2010 Myanmar 0.00 % of price 2010 Namibia 13.00 % of price 2010 Nepal 12.00 % of price 2010 Netherlands 16.00 % of price 2010 New Zealand 11.00 % of price 2010 Nicaragua 13.00 % of price 2010 Niger 16.00 % of price 2010 Nigeria 5.00 % of price 2010 Norway 20.00 % of price 2010 Oman 0.00 % of price 2010 Pakistan 15.00 % of price 2010 Panama 4.00 % of price 2010 Papua New Guinea 9.00 % of price 2008 Paraguay 11.00 % of price 2010 Peru 16.00 % of price 2010 Philippines 11.00 % of price 2010 Poland 18.00 % of price 2010 Portugal 17.00 % of price 2010 Qatar 0.00 % of price 2010 Romania 19.00 % of price 2010 Russia 15.00 % of price 2010 Rwanda 15.00 % of price 2010 Saint Kitts and Nevis 7.00 % of price 2010 Saint Lucia 30.00 % of price 2010 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 13.00 % of price 2010 Samoa 13.00 % of price 2010 San Marino 0.00 % of price 2010 Sao Tome and Principe 0.00 % of price 2010 Saudi Arabia 0.00 % of price 2010 Senegal 15.00 % of price 2010 Serbia 15.00 % of price 2010 Seychelles 0.00 % of price 2010 Sierra Leone 13.00 % of price 2010 Singapore 7.00 % of price 2010 Slovak Republic 16.00 % of price 2010 Slovenia 17.00 % of price 2010 Somalia 0.00 % of price 2010 South Africa 12.00 % of price 2010 South Korea 9.00 % of price 2010 Spain 15.00 % of price 2010 Sri Lanka 11.00 % of price 2010 Sudan 13.00 % of price 2010 Suriname 9.00 % of price 2010 Swaziland 20.00 % of price 2010 Sweden 20.00 % of price 2010 Switzerland 7.00 % of price 2010 Syria 0.00 % of price 2010 Tajikistan 15.00 % of price 2010 Tanzania 15.00 % of price 2010 Thailand 7.00 % of price 2010 The Bahamas 0.00 % of price 2010 Togo 15.00 % of price 2010 Tonga 13.00 % of price 2010 Trinidad and Tobago 13.00 % of price 2010 Tunisia 15.00 % of price 2010 Turkey 15.00 % of price 2010 Turkmenistan 13.00 % of price 2010 Tuvalu 3.00 % of price 2010 UAE 0.00 % of price 2010 Uganda 15.00 % of price 2010 UK 15.00 % of price 2010 Ukraine 17.00 % of price 2010 Uruguay 18.00 % of price 2010 USA 5.00 % of price 2010 Uzbekistan 17.00 % of price 2010 Vanuatu 11.00 % of price 2010 Venezuela 3.00 % of price 2010 Vietnam 9.00 % of price 2010 Yemen 0.00 % of price 2010 Zambia 14.00 % of price 2010 Zimbabwe 13.00 % of price 2010
