There is an epidemic that the First World wants to export to the Third. It's called tobacco and it's already quite rampant here. But with the US courts cracking down, big firms are looking for new markets, fresh growth, more bodies to infect. In the US, it's only now that Big Tobacco is paying for its sins. But we in India are woefully ill-equipped to defend ourselves against their enormous marketing and legal arsenals.
The recent consumer court verdict in south India is the exception that proves the rule. The bench ordered a bus owner and conductor to pay compensation of Rs 2,000 to a passenger for not preventing other travellers from smoking inside the vehicle. The Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum observed that under the Motor Vehicles Act, it was the conductor's responsibility to ensure a safe and comfortable journey. Under the Consumer Protection Act, there was a deficiency in service.
It is probably the first time an Indian court has held that passive smoking can cause harm. But compare the damages awarded with the verdicts by courts abroad.
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A Florida jury awarded $750,000 as damages to a smoker who sued tobacco giant Brown Williamson.
A Brazilian judge ordered Souza Cruz, a subsidiary of BAT industries (the UK-based parent of ITC), to pay damages of $82,500 to the family of a man who died in 1995 of an allegedly smoking-related condition. The judge ruled "smoking has been the determinant cause of the heart attack followed by death" of Nelson Cabral Alves, a smoker from the age of 18 who went through 80 cigarettes a day before he died at 41.
Florida's war against the tobacco industry ended on August 25, 1997, with the signing of a $11.3-bn settlement of a lawsuit intended to punish cigarette makers for decades of fraud and racketeering.
Governor Lawton Chiles said the state won on three important battlegrounds: "Protecting Florida's children, making tobacco pay for the damage it has cost our tax payers and for cigarette makers to finally tell the truth."
The Liggett Group, the fifth-largest cigarette maker in the US, admitted to health hazards involved in smoking in a federal court and also offered to settle tobacco litigation with the attorney general. They also handed over to the court potentially devastating documents. Under the pact, Liggett agreed to pay 25 per cent of its pre-tax profits for the next 25 years to settle claims.
Overall, US cigarette makers have recently struck a deal requiring them to pay $250 bn over the next 25 years to end the worst of the litigation they face. The settlement will be the biggest by any industry in corporate history, dwarfing a proposed $3.2-bn payout by Dow Corning to end breast implant litigation. The deal was struck between the big firms and eight of the 38 states suing them for the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses.
Approximately 1.1 bn people aged 15 and above smoke. Of these, 72 per cent live in developing countries and the rate is expected to rise to 85 per cent by 2025. According to the WHO, by then, the number of people worldwide who die each year from tobacco-related diseases will rise from the current 3.5 million to 10 million. At the same time, it is predicted that death and disability due to tobacco use will increase from three per cent to nine per cent of the global total and a majority of these deaths will occur in the Third World and eastern Europe. Given these projections, it is estimated that more than 100 million people will die from tobacco-related illnesses over the next 30 years, exceeding the toll from AIDS, tuberculosis, automobile accidents, maternal mortality, homicide and suicide combined.
Litigation against the tobacco industry and the efforts of health groups have led to huge amounts of compensation, particularly in the US, home to two of the world's three largest multinational cigarette companies and the world's largest exporter of cigarettes. These companies have been bombarded by a spate of litigation from consumers, health groups and the government. Attacked for relentlessly pursuing profit by hooking generations of smokers through manipulative advertising, disinformation campaigns, and political lobbying, these firms are looking elsewhere for growth. The main aim is to expand abroad.
While cigarette sa