US STATES SUE OVER SMOKING HEALTH COSTS

5 June 1994

The US states of Mississippi and Florida are to take cigarette manufacturers to court in order to recoup the health care costs which they say have been incurred by state health care plans as a result of smoking-related diseases.

Previous cases claiming health damages against the tobacco industry, which have always been brought by or on behalf of individuals, have never succeeded. These new cases, however, seek reimbursement for the state for the direct economic costs of smoking-related illnesses, and this could prevent the companies from using their traditional successful defences which include the claim that smokers knowingly take on all risks associated with smoking, and that the individual manufacturer's products which caused the illness cannot be shown conclusively.

Mississippi is filing against all 13 US tobacco manufacturers, and the state attorney general, Mike Moore, says the lawsuit is "premised on a simple notion. You caused the health crisis, now you pay for it." Florida, which claims that smoking-related illnesses have cost the state at least $1.2 billion since 1989, has now passed a law which would prevent the industry from using its traditional defenses on the grounds that these are irrelevant to the central issue, which is the amount the state has had to pay out for smoking-related diseases.

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