Big Tobacco companies like Phillip Morris STILL have to make public statements about smoking’s harmful effects. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said so in an 11-page court decision. She also slammed the industry’s fraudulent tactics to promote smoking and called the companies’ request to rewrite the public disclosures “ridiculous.”
The ruling stems from an anti-racketeering case that was brought against nine Big Tobacco companies 15 years ago. The conclusion was that the cigarette makers had engaged for over 50 years in a “pervasive scheme to defraud customers and potential customers.” The companies had joined together to make more money by deceiving the public about smoking’s “devastating health effects.”
The companies were ordered to make corrective disclosures on their cigarette packaging, in their ads and on their websites. That’s why they SHOULD be putting out ads that look like this one:
A study found that Philip Morris’s “Think. Don’t Smoke” ads resulted in more positive beliefs and attitudes towards cigarettes. Those beliefs increased even after the campaign was no longer aired. Youths who recalled the ads were also less likely to say that they would not smoke within the next year. This study confirmed earlier findings that the anti-smoking campaign actually caused favorable feelings about the tobacco industry.
Read: 7 Huge Negative Effects of Smoking
The campaign’s purpose was not to discourage smoking, but to gain respectability and favor for it among the young.
Fortunately, Judge Kessler approved a draft requiring the cigarette makers to declare that they “intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive” and to
“maximize the ingestion of nicotine, adding ammonia to make the cigarette taste less harsh, and controlling the physical and chemical make-up of the tobacco blend.”
Judge Slams Ineffective Stop-Smoking Ads
Kessler was blunt about Big Tobacco’s so-called stop-smoking campaigns:
“Defendants never recommend that parents inform their children that smoking kills more than 400,000 people each year, involves an addiction that most smokers desire to end, and will harm those around the smoker. Nor do Defendants ever suggest that parents, as role models for their children, stop smoking.”
“[B]oth Lorillard’s and Philip Morris’s media campaigns promote the message that smoking is an adult decision. Emphasizing that smoking is an adult activity underscores the desirability of engaging in adult behavior for adolescents who are particularly motivated to appear mature.”
Big Tobacco was also required to include a preamble admitting that a federal court had found they “deliberately deceived the American public” about:
“the adverse health effects of smoking and second-hand smoke, the addictiveness of nicotine, the manipulation of cigarette design, and the lack of a significant difference between regular and “light” cigarettes.”
The industry appealed this ruling, but the D.C. Circuit Court upheld the mandate for making disclosures to correct possible misinformation about tobacco products. The court said, though, that the companies couldn’t be compelled to admit their past acts of deliberate deception.
Tobacco Industry’s Attempt to Rewrite Disclosure Statements is Rejected
After mediation, Big Tobacco filed a 40-page brief seeking to rewrite all five of the court-approved disclosure statements. The cigarette makers also wanted the preamble to use the word “determined” instead of “ordered.” They further sought to completely remove their names from the statements and to remove a separate line stating, “Here is the truth.” Fortunately, the court would have none of it.
Judge Kessler wrote in a Feb. 8, 2016 ruling:
“That is ridiculous – a waste of precious time, energy, and money for all concerned – and a loss of information for the public. The court has no intention of following that path, although it is obvious that defendants are, once again, attempting to stall any final outcome to this long-standing litigation.”
Kessler opined that it’s already too little too late. The original ruling for these companies to come clean about the health damage they have caused multiple generations will stand.
Sources:
People who want to smoke could care less what are in cigarettes.
GMO since 1984.
Do you have a chart of increase in COPD Etc since GMO tobacco?
Tomacco being radiation or grafted is pushing the limit already.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e70a1ce0edf9981e4456cae37ae1023085017502aa508fe1b03f98627c3c9dd6.jpg
LDo you have a chart of increase in COPD Etc since GMO?
No I don’t. I think Nancy told me about it. This chart goes from 1999. I think Nancy told me that COPD started being diagnosed since 1990.
http://www.cdc.gov/copd/data.htm
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
How are you doing? Did you really have brain surgery? Hope your doing OK.
Thank you, I thought COPD was linked it seems a like distinct possibility, due to timing of the modification and manifestation of the disease.
Everyday is better than the last. I was lucky to have been able to see one of the best surgeons in the field with a 94% success rate.
Some edema and residual bleeding after the mircosurgery has caused some side effects. I have follow up MRIs scheduled. I should now be cured now and hopefully the side effects will continue to resolve over the next few months.
The AVM was caused by GMO, malformations are at least 10 times the national average in Hawai. I will send two studies on post natal development of AMVs in another comment.
I have a couple things that seem to be GMO related. A couple years ago had a DVT & PE I thought was pretty close to killing me. Last Dec. my BP went to the moon without any real cause. That almost killed me too. Glad to hear your over the hump!
Cannabis is amazing at regulating BP. Glad to hear you survived the DVT and PE they are related to GMO as well from what I have studied. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1e0f3d71e05976179fe73a9c17e4b0b2e1281f8af12b1de8804c6c301cafbf42.png
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045206/
I don’t know if you can trust somebody who can’t remember where they got their PhD https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ffbf6c6a548d28798ad7f1b7e7dc71369a202b5bbd3fed2307c0f994179af8a2.jpg
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNF1o_lklxFfVZRLhVN0hV4XVFZQCw&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52779064041979&ei=BLfpVqioCoWXyAOBr4yIAQ&url=http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/monsanto_rider_could_shield_chemical_giant_from_pcb-related_legal_claims/
“Our report illustrates a unique case of de novo development of a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) after implantation of genetically modified allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells in the brain.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26382859/
“Our data indicate that post-natal, adult formation of the human disease bAVM is possible, and that both genetic mutation and angiogenic stimulation are necessary for lesion development.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117949/
Welcome back my friend.
For anyone who wants to quit smoking, I Highly recommend Allen Carr’s “The Easy Way to Quit Smoking.” Unlike other”quit” books, you don’t have to stop smoking before reading it, and it doesn’t use scare tactics. If those worked, folks would’ve quit a Long time ago. If I remember right, it was under $15 on the Internet. I smoked for over 50 years and tried to quit numerous times – cold turkey, slowly cutting back, patches, gum, food substitutes, etc. THIS BOOK WORKED. I even laughed while I was reading it. – No; I have no financial connections to it whatsoever. I just know how Good I feel having quit. – Please try this if you want to quit smoking.