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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Scotland: Tobacco Company to Deny that Smoking Causes Lung Cancer [08/13-2]
Excerpts from: Tobacco company to deny cancer claim
By TANYA THOMPSON News.Scotsman.Com
[08/13/03]
A tobacco company which is being sued by a Scots widow following the death of her husband will claim in a landmark case at the Court of Session that smoking does not cause lung cancer.
The multi-million pound action, the first in Europe to have reached a full hearing, could lead to an avalanche of similar cases and is likely to have massive implications for public health.
Court documents seen by The Scotsman suggest Imperial Tobacco will argue that
smoking has not been proven as a cause of lung cancer. Instead, the company
will claim other factors such as occupation, alcohol consumption and diet may
be responsible.
Cameron Fyfe, a Glasgow-based solicitor, claims that government ministers have
a "moral duty" to support his client. He said: "The Executive
should realise that if Imperial Tobacco wins this case, it would be a disaster
for public health in this country.
Mrs McTear, 57, from Ayrshire, is claiming damages of £500,000, saying the firm did not warn her husband of the dangers of smoking.
Alf McTear, who smoked 60 cigarettes a day, died in 1993 at the age of 48,
a year after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He began smoking in the early
1960s and his widow claims he favoured John Player, a brand manufactured by
Imperial Tobacco.
He added: "It is not surprising the tobacco industry does not accept that
there is a link between smoking and cancer. They know that it will open the
floodgates to litigation. They only started issuing health warnings in 1971.
It is only now that the warnings are big enough and bold enough for people to
take notice."
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