Judge Rejects Injunction Against Cigarettes

A judge declined to bar tobacco companies from selling cigarettes in California, saying they cannot be required to launch a “warning campaign” on the dangers of secondhand smoke. San Diego Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Prager denied the request for a preliminary injunction that attorneys for California sought as part of three consolidated suits scheduled to go to trial in February. The state’s case is based on Proposition 65, the voter-approved law that requires businesses with 10 or more employees to post warnings to the public of any chemicals on the premises that might cause cancer or reproductive problems. Prager, citing information already available to the public, wrote, “It must be concluded that the public is presently being informed of the very dangers [the state attorneys] espouse.” The state was seeking a court order to make tobacco companies pay for advertisements warning of the danger secondhand smoke poses to nonsmokers. State lawyers also wanted tobacco companies to acknowledge those risks in letters to physicians and nurses.