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smokersrightsok
Oklahoma Smoker's Rights Group weblog.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2003 :::
Huge tobacco ruling overturned
Smoker
A US court has backed five cigarette companies' appeal against a record $145bn fine, in a major legal victory for the tobacco industry.
A Florida appeals court quashed the fine on Wednesday, saying the plaintiffs - 700,000 Florida residents suffering from smoking-related diseases - were not entitled to take collective action against the tobacco companies.
"The fate of an entire industry and of close to a million Florida residents cannot rest upon such a fundamentally unfair proceeding," the court said.
"This unprecedented punitive award is excessive as a matter of law."
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued in court that their clients should be compensated because the tobacco companies had misled them about the health risks of smoking.
Shares rally
The $145bn fine, imposed in July 2000, was the largest damages award on record in the US at the time. The tobacco companies warned that paying it might put them out of business.
Shares in the five tobacco companies targeted by the action - Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Lorillard Tobacco, Brown & Williamson, and Liggett Group - rose sharply as soon as the appeals court reached its decision.
Shares in Altria, Philip Morris' parent company, closed 9.7% higher at $38.30, while RJ Reynolds was up 5% at $33.28.
Merrill Lynch analyst Martin Feldman said the tobacco industry "could not have wished for a more favourable outcome."
The court said that while it had barred the plaintiffs from taking out a single lawsuit in a so-called class action against the tobacco firms, they remained free to sue individually.
The decision marks a major legal victory for the tobacco industry, which in recent years has been hit by numerous multi-billion dollar awards in cases brought by ill smokers.
Cigarette firms have long argued that class action lawsuits are inappropriate in smoking and health cases, because not all victims of smoking-related illnesses can be assumed to have had the same appreciation of the risks involved in consuming tobacco.
Closing in
Earlier this year, there was speculation that Philip Morris might go bust after it said it was unable to pay a $12bn bond as part of a separate lawsuit.
The bond was later reduced on appeal.
The tobacco industry is still fighting a second case brought by the US Justice Department, which wants cigarette firms to pay $289bn in compensation for damaging public health.
The Florida appeals court decision came on the day that 192 countries, including the US, signed up to a World Health Organisation-sponsored treaty aimed at curbing tobacco use.
The treaty commits signatories to restricting tobacco advertising and emphasising the health risks of smoking.
::: posted by Creditwrench at 9:59 PM
Huge tobacco ruling overturned
Smoker
A US court has backed five cigarette companies' appeal against a record $145bn (£87bn) fine, in a major legal victory for the tobacco industry.
A Florida appeals court quashed the fine on Wednesday, saying the plaintiffs - 700,000 Florida residents suffering from smoking-related diseases - were not entitled to take collective action against the tobacco companies.
"The fate of an entire industry and of close to a million Florida residents cannot rest upon such a fundamentally unfair proceeding," the court said.
"This unprecedented punitive award is excessive as a matter of law."
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued in court that their clients should be compensated because the tobacco companies had misled them about the health risks of smoking.
Shares rally
The $145bn fine, imposed in July 2000, was the largest damages award on record in the US at the time. The tobacco companies warned that paying it might put them out of business.
Shares in the five tobacco companies targeted by the action - Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Lorillard Tobacco, Brown & Williamson, and Liggett Group - rose sharply as soon as the appeals court reached its decision.
Shares in Altria, Philip Morris' parent company, closed 9.7% higher at $38.30, while RJ Reynolds was up 5% at $33.28.
Merrill Lynch analyst Martin Feldman said the tobacco industry "could not have wished for a more favourable outcome."
The court said that while it had barred the plaintiffs from taking out a single lawsuit in a so-called class action against the tobacco firms, they remained free to sue individually.
The decision marks a major legal victory for the tobacco industry, which in recent years has been hit by numerous multi-billion dollar awards in cases brought by ill smokers.
Cigarette firms have long argued that class action lawsuits are inappropriate in smoking and health cases, because not all victims of smoking-related illnesses can be assumed to have had the same appreciation of the risks involved in consuming tobacco.
Closing in
Earlier this year, there was speculation that Philip Morris might go bust after it said it was unable to pay a $12bn bond as part of a separate lawsuit.
The bond was later reduced on appeal.
The tobacco industry is still fighting a second case brought by the US Justice Department, which wants cigarette firms to pay $289bn in compensation for damaging public health.
The Florida appeals court decision came on the day that 192 countries, including the US, signed up to a World Health Organisation-sponsored treaty aimed at curbing tobacco use.
The treaty commits signatories to restricting tobacco advertising and emphasising the health risks of smoking.
::: posted by Creditwrench at 9:56 PM
Folks, it is obvious that these Smoke-A-Nazi's will never quit until we learn how to become just as vocal as they are. These blogs are the way to help put an end to their crap at least to some extent.
Key anti-smoking treaty adopted
Iraqi Kurd smoker, northern Iraq
Poorer countries wanted a strict agreement
The World Health Organization (WHO) has unanimously adopted an anti-smoking treaty - the first global public health measure ever approved.
The aim of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is to reduce an estimated five million smoking-related deaths each year.
All 192 member states are now committed to strict curbs on the advertising, marketing and sale of tobacco products within five years.
At least one third of the space on cigarette packets will have to be devoted to health warnings, including pictures of diseased lungs.
SMOKING Kills 4.9m people a year
Greater cause of death and disability than any single disease Known or probable cause of approximately 25 diseases
Someone dies from tobacco use every eight seconds
Source: WHO
The adoption of the treaty is a triumph for the outgoing director general of the WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who made tackling tobacco-related deaths a key issue during her time in office.
"Today we are acting to save billions of lives and protect people's health for generations to come. This is an historic moment," she said.
The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, at WHO headquarters in the Swiss city of Geneva, says the vote ends four years of sometimes acrimonious wrangling.
During this period, she says, countries with large tobacco industries - including the United States and Germany - initially opposed the treaty but finally gave their approval under strong pressure from developing nations.
It is important to take a global approach to anti-smoking efforts
Health activists applauded the treaty saying it could prove a turning point in the fight against tobacco use.
But they warned that even after it had come into force, it would take time to make a significant impact on the world's 1.1 billion smokers.
Victims 'set to double'
The WHO, a United Nations agency, says that some 4.9 million people die each year from cancer, cardiovascular disease and other conditions linked to smoking.
If countries fail to adopt the measures of the convention, it says, the death toll is likely to exceed 10 million by 2020, with 70% of the victims in the developing world.
Many new smokers are young girls in the developing world, where levels of tobacco consumption are rising - in contrast to trends in some industrialised nations.
The convention will come into force once it is ratified by 40 countries.
Ms Brundtland, who decided not to seek a second five-year term at the helm of the WHO, is to be replaced by doctor Jong Wook Lee of South Korea, the organisation formally announced on Wednesday.
Members will vote on his candidacy at the assembly.
South Africa, one of the few developing countries with strong anti-tobacco laws, said it had been pressing for an even tougher treaty, particularly on financial aid for poorer states in implementing the pact.
"The convention is not for us an end in itself. It is a beginning," South Africa's Health Minister Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang told the assembly.
England's Chief Medical Office, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, welcomed the treaty and said the UK had already introduced many of the measures it outlined.
"Today the world public health community has dealt a hammer blow to one of the biggest killers of modern times.
"As a result, over the decades ahead, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives will surely be saved."
In Brussels, EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne welcomed the adoption as an historic moment.
"Global problems need global partnerships and local solutions," he said in a statement.
"Armed with this convention we can move forward to make tobacco control a cornerstone of health and development."
::: posted by Creditwrench at 3:44 PM
Tuesday, May 20, 2003 :::
So they don't want us to holler about things like this?
I always thought this was a country where speaking out was our God given right.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A measure that would limit the ability of citizens
to speak at meetings of public bodies will be reconsidered Wednesday,
state Rep. Opio Toure announced Tuesday.
A compromise version of House Bill 1670 by Rep. Curt Roggow,
R-Enid, and Sen. James Williamson, R-Tulsa, passed the House, 70-26, on
May 16. However, Toure held the bill on a motion to reconsider.
"This bill would allow public officials to deny citizens the
opportunity to speak at public meetings about public funds and other
public business," Toure complained. For example, he noted, Oklahoma City
residents would not have the right to speak at school board meetings
about the "nearly one million dollars that was thrown in the trash can
on a newly installed, malfunctioning phone system -- and the
Legislature would get the blame."
The principal objection to the bill, Toure related, is a provision
that states, "No public body shall be required by the Open Meeting Act
to permit comments from the public ordering any of its meetings."
HB 1670 is supported by the Oklahoma State School Boards
Association, Toure said. "It seems odd to me that school board members
would support legislation to keep citizens from speaking at school board
meetings," the Oklahoma City Democrat said.
::: posted by Creditwrench at 12:41 PM
Sunday, May 18, 2003 :::
Does second hand smoke really kill or even harm others?
Click on the next line to see the article.
This study by Nature Science Update doesn't seem to back that up at all.
Tabcorp shares fell 16¢ yesterday to $10.35 as the market continued to digest the news that the company expected a full-year profit fall of 1-3 per cent because of a 12.8 per cent slump in gaming revenue resulting from the smoking ban.
An analyst said Thursday's announcement of the weaker profit outlook was worrying to the extent that results had not improved in recent months.
He said that in February, at the half-year announcement, gaming was down but was expected to improve, and it had not.
Tabcorp is fighting the smoking ban by establishing smoking rooms so that gaming patrons do not have to go outside the building, with the cost borne by venue owners.
::: posted by Creditwrench at 5:34 AM
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