Word: smoker
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...Rosenblatt backed up the pathos--after all, a nurse like Farnan knows the risks of smoking--with strong evidence of malfeasance by the tobacco companies. Taking advantage of mounds of industry documents turned over in other smoker lawsuits, he argued that the cigarette makers had intentionally kept the public in the dark about the dangers of smoking. Even in the face of that evidence, the tobacco companies tried to avoid conceding that cigarettes are addictive or cause cancer. They made a big mistake, says Rosenblatt. "To continue to carry on with this moronic debate...It made the jury as angry...
...they haven't known just how strong the link really is. A report on 12,000 adults shows that smoking quadruples the risk of periodontal disease and is responsible for more than half of all cases of severe gum disease. The only bright spot: quitting can bring a smoker's risk down to that of someone who has never lit up--though it may take 10 years...
Last week a jury ordered Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds to pay $20 million in punitive damages to a dying ex-smoker who picked up the habit after the Surgeon General's warning began appearing on cigarette packs in the late 1960s. Warning or not, the juries have primed the pump and Big Tobacco is going to pay. The tobacco companies are already paying $246 million in an out-of-court settlement to the states for the health costs of smoking--with this ruling, any smoker could feel the legal costs are worth the chance at a day in court...
...What smoker wouldn't jump--er, hop, with a wheezing cough--at the chance? If this guy started smoking after the government put a label on the package assuring them of the risks, and he has been awarded such a big settlement, doesn't that entitle everyone to a piece of the tobacco companies' vanishing assets? The tobacco settlement with the states did not offer the companies immunity from further lawsuits, and this case will certainly lead to further litigation...
...latest statistics show that more than 1 in 3 adolescents is a daily smoker, an increase of 50% in the past decade, and much higher than the smoking rate of 1 in 4 among today's adults. Even if you don't think your high schooler is a nicotine fiend, she is probably hanging around kids who smoke, making it more likely that she will start...