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August 6th, 2013:

Tobacco company must pay lung cancer victim’s family US$37.5 million ‘because they targeted teens with their advertising’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2383745/Tobacco-company-pay-lung-cancer-victims-family-37-5-million-targeted-teens-advertising.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Tobacco company must pay lung cancer victim’s

family US$37.5 million ‘because they targeted teens

with their advertising’

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 18:42 GMT, 2 August 2013 | UPDATED: 18:50 GMT, 2 August 2013

A Florida jury has ordered tobacco company R.J. Reynolds to pay $37.5 million for contributing to a lung cancer victim’s death by marketing their cigarettes to youths.

The money will go to the family of Laura Grossman, a mother of two who died in 1995 at the age of 38, roughly 23 years after she started smoking R.J. Reynold’s ‘Vantage’ cigarettes.

Grossman was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1993. Attorneys for her family argued during the 20-day trial that she became addicted to ‘Vantage’ cigarettes at the young age of 15 because the company marketed them to youths.

Jessica Grossman died of lung cancer in 1995

Jessica Grossman died of lung cancer in 1995

Jessica Grossman, a mother of two, died of lung cancer in 1995 at the age of 38. She began smoking when she was 15 years old

‘The jury’s message was loud and clear: Big Tobacco should be protecting teens, not killing them,’ said Scott Schlesinger, the Grossman family’s lawyer.

‘They should be curing cancer, not causing it. Instead, they continue to addict kids to nicotine, deliver these death sentences, and then try to blame smokers who they addicted. Their conduct is reprehensible.’

In the 1970s, R.J. Reynolds advertised its ‘Vantage’ cigarettes as containing less harmful chemicals than other cigarettes.

In a newspaper ad from the 1970s, the company states: ‘The thing that makes Vantage so special is that its filter is based on an innovative design concept that gives smokers flavor like a  full-flavor cigarette without anywhere near the “tar” or the nicotine.’

The company – which is expected to appeal the jury’s decision – argued during trial that Grossman knew the risks of smoking and that she was responsible for her own death.

Attorneys for Grossman's family argued that she became addicted to 'Vantage' cigarettes at the young age of 15 because the company marketed them to youths

Attorneys for Grossman’s family argued that she became addicted to ‘Vantage’ cigarettes at the young age of 15 because the company marketed them to youths

Schlesinger countered that Grossman became addicted to the cigarettes at such a young age that ‘she was no match for Big Tobacco.’

Grossman’s case was originally part of a class action lawsuit on behalf of 700,000 smokers that the Florida Supreme Court threw out in 2006. In its ruling, the court found that tobacco companies knowingly sold dangerous products and kept health risks concealed, but that the case could not proceed as a class action. Instead, the court said each case must be proven individually.

The ruling paved the way for plaintiffs like Grossman’s family to sue tobacco companies for negligence.It also said that smokers and their families need only prove addiction to nicotine and that smoking was the cause of their illnesses or deaths.

Australian male smoking rate far lower than HKG

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Victorian smoking rates down to 13%

Kate Hagan http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-smoking-rates-down-to-13-20130805-2rai0.html


Published: August 6, 2013 – 12:00AM

Smoking rates in Victoria continue to fall with just 13 per cent of Victorians now smoking regularly and young people turning their back on the habit, new figures show.

Cancer Council Victoria research to be released on Tuesday shows 13.3 per cent of Victorians were regular smokers who inhaled weekly or more often last year, down from 14.4 per cent in 2011.

The smoking rates are the lowest since the Cancer Council started collecting the data in 1998, when 21.2 per cent were regular smokers, and the 58.2 per cent of Victorians who had never smoked was the highest. More than 70 per cent of young people aged 18 to 29 had never smoked, a much higher rate than for older Victorians.

The research showed that men (16 per cent) were more likely to be smokers than women (11.2 per cent). Also more likely to be smokers were older Victorians, those with lower levels of education and in lower socioeconomic groups.

Quit Victoria executive director Fiona Sharkie said particularly pleasing was a “narrowing of the gap” between smoking rates in Victorians of low and high socioeconomic status.

“We’ve seen declines across all age groups and socioeconomic groups in recent years but the acceleration in the decline in smoking rates among Victoria’s most disadvantaged communities and young people is very encouraging,” she said.

“Highly emotive anti-smoking advertising campaigns have been shown to have the greatest impact on low socioeconomic groups and is the result of long-term investment from both state and federal governments. We need to see that investment sustained . . . for this decline to continue.”

Quit policy manager Kylie Lindorff said tax hikes were another measure proven to impact smoking rates, particularly among lower income earners.

She welcomed the federal government’s move last week to increase the tobacco excise by 12.5 per cent a year from December and expected plain packaging would also deliver dividends in coming years, but said there was plenty more work to do.

“It’s often thought that we’ve done so well on tobacco control, we’ve won the battle, but we still have about 4000 Victorians every year dying from tobacco-related illnesses so we can’t afford to be complacent,” Ms Lindorff said.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-smoking-rates-down-to-13-20130805-2rai0.html