Hyderabad: Extraordinary punitive damages were awarded recently to a smoker’s widow in Florida. America’s second biggest tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds has said it will appeal the verdict awarding $23.6 billion (around Rs1,41,600 crore) for the death of a smoker aged 36.
Anti-tobacco laws go back a long way in the US, with class action suits for billions of dollars in damages for cancer-hit smokers, and huge awards in billions aren’t unknown, though rarely paid.
It is less important if the survivors will actually get the kind of money being talked about, but what the ruling does accomplish is to dent tobacco companies further in an era when smoking is more than just a dirty habit, and is being increasingly seen as a social menace.
In the latest case, the tobacco firm’s lawyers had to deal with a jury in which four of five members were 45 or below. That means a new generation is passing judgement on smoking in an era vastly different from the one in the 1950s when such lawsuits began.
TV footage of tobacco executives concealing smoking’s addictive nature and the presence of deadly chemicals in cigarettes are said to have played a key role in convincing the jury.
The current generation has a choice. It is far more aware of the dangers of smoking as well as other addictive substances like recreational drugs and hallucinogenic chemicals. It’s now really up to them to keep away from harmful activities that enslave people, and hits their health as well as their wallets.
