Essay on Lawsuits Against Big Tobacco… Justified or Not?

In the Cipollone vs. Liggett Group, Inc. court case against three tobacco companies, Antonio Cipollone, a husband sued three tobacco companies for the death of his wife, Rose Cipollone, due to lung cancer. Mr. Cipollone claims that the tobacco companies had failed to inform his wife of the risks that came with smoking. The jury agreed that the tobacco companies had failed to warn smokers of the dangers prior to 1966. “The jury also found that Mrs. Cipollone had voluntarily and unreasonably encountered a known danger by smoking cigarettes and that this conduct by Mrs. Cipollone proximately caused her lung cancer and death” ("CIPOLLONE v. LIGGETT GROUP, INC”). It was decided to appoint 80% of the blame to Mrs. Cipollone and 20% to the tobacco companies for the failure to warn consumers about the risks of smoking ("CIPOLLONE v. LIGGETT GROUP, INC”). The issue concerning tobacco companies and whether or not these companies should be held responsible for smoking-related illness and deaths has been highly controversial throughout history. Tobacco companies do warn their consumers concerning the negative effects resulting from tobacco consumption, so buyers know what they are risking when they begin consuming tobacco. Despite these companies’ warnings towards the consumers of the dangers, these companies are highly aware of the extreme addiction that comes with the use of their product, making it extremely hard for the consumers to stop using tobacco.

People brought lawsuits against tobacco companies claiming that cigarettes caused different diseases. These cases did not hold up in court and lost. However, states brought similar lawsuits against tobacco companies and won. The states were paid $206 billion dollars to offset the costs for treating those who have been harmed by tobacco products. These lawsuits led to tobacco companies regulating the industry more and providing public health campaigns warning about the negative effects tobacco products can have (Aliprandini and Walter 1).

Every year, tobacco companies spend billions of dollars on advertising and promotion. Not only that but they are causing deaths of many. They try to get people of all ages to use their product. Unfortunately, this works, after a while this causes many serious issues to the body, their addiction kicks in causing the tobacco business to flourish, and causes young deaths of many kids and adults. Overall tobacco companies are causing deaths by the tobacco use and people need to know the serious topics around this.

Tobacco companies have had massive public relations and campaigns to the whole wide world to influence young adults to start to smoke. By advertising, having famous people smoke, in movies, and make it look cool. Tobacco companies continue to make there presence known by targeting kids. Since the legal age of buying and using tobacco products is at 18, the age where young adults feel invincible and free, they hope they will get hook and continue to smoke all the way through there adult life’s. Since most companies know that tobacco with nicotine can have an addictive habit, they hope to attract the young adults. Tobacco companies had a monopoly with regulations up until the year 2009.

Tobacco companies make a lot of profit on cigarettes, and they want shoppers to keep buying their product. They only concern about how much money they are going to make; they do not care about how it will affect other people’s health. An average pack of cigarette is about five dollars, but imagine smoking about two packs day that would be three thousand three hundred and sixty dollars a year. According to Werner, "supporters of FDA bill cited figures from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention that smokers coat the country $96 billion a year in direct health care costs, and an additional $97 billion a year in lost productivity". Smokers are not only spending their own money on cigarettes, but they are also spending tax payer’s money on

Tobacco companies should be held responsible for any smoking related illness or death. The use of tobacco is the leading preventable cause of disability, disease, and death in the U.S. About 1 in every 5 deaths in the United States is tobacco related and an additional 16 million people are currently suffering with a serious illness or disease due to smoking. For every one person who dies from smoking, about 30 others suffer from at least one serious tobacco related ailment. A typical smoker will take 10 “puffs” on a cigarette over a time period of about 5 minutes of that cigarette being lit. Therefore, a person who smokes about 1 pack (25 cigs.) daily would receive 250 “hits” of nicotine each day. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance found in the ingredients of a cigarette. Although the nicotine is addictive and can be toxic if ingested in high dosage, it does not cause cancer in itself; the other chemicals in tobacco are responsible for the related health problems. If tobacco companies are aware their products are addictive and harmful, they should be responsible for consequences that follow (National Institute of Drug Abuse).

The use of tobacco is a very controversial topic here in the United States. The harmful side effects of tobacco are well known and consequently, many believe that it should be outlawed. Though this has not yet occurred, constant regulations on the industry and

It is estimated that an approximate 158 040 Americans alone will die from lung cancer each and every year. The cause for this horrible event may lead to many reasons although the biggest reason is the multibillion dollar Tobacco industry. Tobacco companies are one of the major reasons that many people died from lung cancer and now with universal health care becoming widely accessible the hard earned money made by the taxpayers are going towards treating those who were struck down by its negative effects. Instead of this I strongly believe that given the facts and the reciprocations of thier continued actions the tobacco industry should be legally forced to pay for any and every smoking patient diagnosed with lung cancer.

Government passes law to the society to prevent the risk factor that is of significant harm to their health or life. Some of those activities that cause risk are drinking and driving, use of dangerous weapons. We notice that these activities pose a risk to others who are not engaged in these activities. But there are activities that pose a danger to the participant who engage in them. For example, drinking, smoking, rock climbing. Since all states follow freedom, the state cannot pass laws that forbid consenting adults from participating in such activities just because they cause harm to them. A person engaging in an activity with full knowledge of the risks involved is morally justified. It is morally wrong to get

public health is the failure to take an environmental approach to modern day killers such as smoking (Northridge). Such environmental dilemmas are causing a domino effect in government. Economic Impact of exposure to secondhand smoke (2009) demonstrates the political and economic forces campaigning against the growing tobacco industry. Public health’s initiatives in incorporating education and health promotion campaigns have convinced many to resist the urge of smoking. Congress which still provides subsides to tobacco growers are examining evidence of high economic costs paid by government paid programs which include Medicaid and Medicare for the treatment of tobacco caused disease has forced government to question their previous assumption about the economic advantage of supporting the tobacco industry (Schneider,

Cigarette smoking is one of the worst possible things you could do to your body. Cigarettes kill roughly “480,000 people a year in the United states” according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So why do we still allow them to be sold? Why are we advertising cigarettes in a way that makes younger people want to start smoking? How is that the government know for a fact the cigarettes cause serious health and death, but still does almost nothing about it? In this essay I am going to tell you the facts about why cigarettes should be banned in the U.S. I'm going to talk about the effects smoking cigarettes has on the human body. How smokers cost the healthcare system almost 200 billion dollars a year. And how tobacco businesses are spending billions of dollars a year to keep people smoking

The Cigarette Industry is under attack from all sides. They have battled public opinion, government regulations, and medical warnings since the mid 1900’s. A front-page article by Reader’s Digest in 1952 entitled “Cancer by the Carton” started the national dialogue about the negative health affects of smoking cigarettes. The medical community had published articles since the 1930’s about the possible negative affects of smoking, but it took until the 1950’s to gain public attention. Smoking prevalence among adults in the United States has dropped from 42% to 18.1% from 1968 to 2014. With the number of smoker dropping, and government regulation increasing, one could make the assumption that the Cigarette Industry is falling into steep economic decline. A little research shows the opposite. In Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco Warren Buffet said, “I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It cost a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's addictive. And there's a fantastic brand loyalty.” Using Porter’s Five Forces and analyzing the general environment, one can see that the Cigarette Industry is not only surviving, it is thriving.

One of the long run effects of smoking is that four million people are killed every year and is estimated that the figure will rise to ten million by 2030

Too many Americans die every year due directly because of cigarettes. Cigarette use and other tobacco related products are a very complex and controversial topic to discuss. The statistics prove that tobacco does not only direct harm to the user but potential harm to others around the user. With government data displaying the affects cigarettes have on a person’s life from most significantly health problems to financial troubles, anti-cigarette groups are astonished as why cigarettes, and tobacco as a whole, are not banned in modern day America. Every year more than 480,000 deaths occur because of cigarettes (CDC). While being one of the highest causes of death each year in the United States, it may shock the nation that cigarette related deaths are also the leading preventable cause of death.

The World Health Organization has found that, worldwide, tobacco kills approximately 7 million people every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than 16 million Americans live with disease related to the use of tobacco, and more than 480,000 people die. These tobacco related diseases include “cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and chronic bronchitis,” with increased risk for “tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.” (CDC, 2016) In the United States, the use of tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death, killing more than “alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined.” (Tobacco Free Kids Organization, 2017) Not only does tobacco kill, the expenditures and losses associated with tobacco are sizable – WHO estimates that “The world spent about $422 billion on health care expenses attributable to smoking in 2012.” (American Cancer Association, 2017) Nearly $170 million of that is spent in the United States, with another “$156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke.” (CDC, 2017)