Australians in class action against tobacco firms

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Monday July 26, 1999

Australians in class action against tobacco firms

SYDNEY, July 26 (Reuters) - Australians suffering diseases such as lung
cancer and
emphysema on Monday launched a class action against tobacco companies
Philip Morris
Cos Inc (NYSE:MO - news), Rothmans Holdings Ltd and W.D. & H.O. Wills Holdings
Ltd . Law firm Slater & Gordon said in the Federal Court in Sydney that it
launched the action on behalf of Australians who between April 16, 1996,
and April 16, 1999, contracted a smoking-induced disease such as lung
cancer. Compensation claim specialists Slater & Gordon argued that the
tobacco companies misled smokers in the 1960s and 1970s by promoting
cigarette smoking as a cool, sophisticated activity and by not revealing
the health dangers associated with
smoking.

``We will put evidence to suggest that all the advertising which has taken
place since 1960 that smoking is a sexy, glamorous, adult, cool thing to
do, unattended by any health risk, has been misleading and deceptive,''
said lawyer Peter Gordon outside the court. ``It (tobacco advertising) has
induced generation after generation of Australians, in particularly young
Australians, to smoke at
a terrible toll,'' Gordon told reporters. The initial statement of claim
against the tobacco companies is on behalf of six Australians, but Gordon
said ``there are probably some 60,000 people around Australia covered
within the ambit of the class action.'' 

``If these claims succeed the total compensation claim will number in the
billions of dollars,'' he said.

In the first stage of what is believed to be the first class action against
tobacco companies in Australia, Philip Morris Australia Ltd, Wills and
Rothmans asked Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox to strike out the
proceedings or particular parts of the claim.

The tobacco companies said the case was not appropriate for a class action,
because of individual issues relating to each smoker such as medical history.

In the statement of claim, six Australians with lung cancer claimed damages
for pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and loss of expectation of
life. They accused tobacco companies of denying evidence existed linking
cigarette smoking to any health risk; of placing cigarette vending machines
in places to make cigarettes more readily available to young people; of
remaining silent about or concealing knowledge about health risks.

As well as misleading conduct, the tobacco companies were accused of being
negligent in various ways including failing to remove two substances --
nitrosamines and polyaromatic hydrocarbons -- from cigarettes. This the
statement said would have significantly reduced the risk of smoking-related
disease. ``Smoking-related disease is the biggest form of preventable death
in Australia,'' said Gordon. A decision on whether the Australian class
action goes to trial is expected within three weeks.