A Quebec court has awarded damages of $15 billion in a class action lawsuit against three tobacco companies. The companies—Imperial Tobacco Canada, Rothmans Benson & Hedges, and JTI-MacDonald—are accused of trivializing and hiding the effects of smoking from their customers from the 1950s through to the 1990s. During this time, the research regarding smoking as a significant negative health habit grew from preliminary and non-universal until the practice became one of the best-understood activities in terms of its influence on human health.
The lawsuit was first brought forward in 1998 by Jean-Yves Blais, and seeks repayment for those that have been affected by smoking-related diseases. This represents 1 million smokers who smoked a “pack-a-day” for at least 12 years before 1998. Each smoker is entitled to $104 if they were unable to quit smoking, with further tens of thousands being rewarded to those suffering from lung cancer or emphysema. The companies intend to appeal on the grounds that the court did not consider the customers’ responsibility for their own health.
In the 1950s, there were a few studies suggesting a link between smoking and cancer. One significant one had been done in Germany in 1939, and so was understandably ignored by the Canadian government during World War II. In the late 1940s and early 50s, a number of scientists made an initial correlation between smoking and cancer, particularly by observing the higher frequency of smokers hospitalized for cancer treatment. These reports too were largely ignored, causing only a small amount of turmoil which quickly subsided. In the subsequent decades, more and more research emerged which showed the dangers of smoking.
During the same period, anti-tobacco activists and the tobacco lobby jockeyed for dominance; the tobacco activists spreading the new studies and pushing for controls like advertising bans, and taxation to artificially raise tobacco prices. The tobacco companies used their influence to try to stop the legislation and, as was found by the Quebec court, did their best to hide the growing science. One company “asserted into the 1990s that there was ‘scientific controversy’.”
This ruling is important for other cases which are likely to be heard soon. Every province in the nation has an ongoing lawsuit with tobacco companies, so this ruling sets a precedent for the rest. The judge, Justice Brian Riordan, made clear that he was eager to punish what he saw as the unrightfully earned “billions of dollars [that came] at the expense of the lungs, the throats, and the general well-being of [the industry’s] customers.” While there is 1 million dollars in moral damages—that is to say, damages for the suffering that tobacco use has caused to smokers—the remainder is punitive damages. These damages are, as the judge stated, designed to act as a negative incentive “…to other industries that today or tomorrow find themselves in a similar moral conflict…”
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