Everyone's Health

The tobacco industry, has finally,

admitted that cigarette smoking does cause cancer

In recent years, the tobacco industry has publicly admitted, in varying degrees, that cigarette smoking does indeed cause cancer. There's one exception, though, a place where manufacturers continue to insist that there's no connection at all: the courtroom.

In a paper published in the journal Tobacco Control, researchers at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Detroit examined the opening and closing arguments, witness statements and depositions in 34 personal injury claims brought against major tobacco manufacturers in the United States between 1986 and 2003.

They categorized the companies' arguments into seven categories, including: 1. There's no scientific proof that cigarette smoking causes cancer; 2. The plaintiff doesn't have lung cancer; 3. It may be lung cancer, but it's not the kind caused by the tobacco product in question.

Attorneys for the manufacturers also argued that other risk factors invalidated the claim that tobacco was solely responsible and that the plaintiff had known that smoking involved a risk to health.

The study's authors concluded: “The cigarette companies, though their public admissions and courtroom arguments, seem to be saying: 'Yes, smoking causes lung cancer, but not in the people who sue us.'”

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