KT&G has faced two unprecedented legal challenges that could force the country’s biggest tobacco company by sales volume to change its business practices. One is about health and the other is an environment-related dispute. Gyeonggi governor Kim Moon-soo last week made a rare appearance at a courtroom in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to testify that cigarette butts are a major culprit for fire outbreaks in the region. Kim emphasized it was ... Jump to full article >>

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A cancer-stricken father of three, who lit a Wills Navy Cut for his first puff when he was 16 and got hooked, has taken manufacturers ITC to a consumer court for not warning him about the “dangers” of smoking. In the last stages of throat cancer — and robbed of his voice following a surgery to remove his larynx — customs official Deepak Kumar has sought Rs 1 crore in damages. Kumar, additional customs commissioner of Mumbai, today filed h ... Jump to full article >>

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New research provides evidence that the average cigarette is crawling with germs, including bacteria that cause respiratory disease. But as one spokesman for a tobacco company pointed out, the authors of the new study aren’t sure what, if any, hazard the germs pose. And exposure to bacteria is nothing new: Microbes surround us every day of our lives. Still, the findings raise plenty of questions, said study lead author Amy R. Sapkota. R ... Jump to full article >>

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In a case with potentially major implications for scholars and publishers, a Stanford University professor who often serves as an expert witness against tobacco companies is fighting an effort by lawyers for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to obtain the manuscript of his unpublished and unfinished book on that industry. A Florida state court judge has already authorized the tobacco company’s lawyers to issue a subpoena requiring Robert N ... Jump to full article >>

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Researchers have uncovered copies of sensitive internal documents destroyed by a Canadian tobacco company that could boost efforts by provincial governments suing the industry over health costs linked to smoking. The documents destroyed by Imperial Tobacco Canada reveal the firm had scientific data decades ago showing that cigarettes were addictive and caused cancer. “This evidence suggests that the industry wasn’t sharing absolutely ... Jump to full article >>

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The current campaign to defeat health care reform bears an uncanny resemblance to the one secretly implemented by Philip Morris and its third-party allies in the early 1990s to defeat Hillarycare. I touched on the Philip Morris campaign, briefly, in “The Lie Machine,” but I’ve since uncovered a bumper crop of additional memos from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library that offer a detailed picture of the cigarette maker’s behind-the-scenes ... Jump to full article >>

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