2 More Tobacco Firms Admit Smoking Causes Health Problems

Tobacco companies Brown & Williamson and Lorillard have acknowledged smoking’s link to health problems, leaving industry leader Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds on the other side of an issue that once united a monolithic industry. Liggett in 1997 was the first to break ranks and acknowledge the connection.

The splintered positions were offered in opening statements this week by tobacco attorneys trying to avoid a multibillion-dollar award to 300,000 to 500,000 Florida smokers.

The jury already has ruled against the industry twice, saying the companies conspired to produce a deadly product and awarding $12.7 million in compensatory damages to three representative smokers with cancer.

Cigarette makers want the jury to award no punitive damages, arguing that $254 billion from settlements with the states is enough to pay for decades of misconduct. The industry fears it could face a punitive damages verdict exceeding $100 billion.

“We agree with the public health authorities and the surgeon general that smoking causes disease,” Lorillard attorney Ken Reilly told the jury. “I don’t know how more flatly that can be stated.”

Brown & Williamson attorney Gordon Smith said that Chief Executive Nicholas Brookes “will tell you it is and has been Brown & Williamson’s position that smoking causes cancer. There is no confusion about that whatsoever.”

Such acknowledgments do not amount to acceptance of blame, however. If tobacco executives concede smoking causes disease, they generally say it cannot be proven in any one smoker because of individual risk factors.