Ontario files suit against tobacco manufacturers

Ontario files suit against tobacco

TORONTO — The Canadian province of Ontario has become the latest jurisdiction to launch a lawsuit to recover smoking-related health costs from the tobacco industry.

The suit seeks $50 billion Canadian (US$46 billion) from a dozen Canadian firms and their parent companies.

Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley said Tuesday the figure represents their view of the costs of health care related illnesses directly tied to tobacco from 1955 until now.

The claim follows similar actions in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and New Brunswick, as well as in the U.S. and abroad.

Among those named in the suit is Canada’s largest tobacco manufacturer, Imperial Tobacco Co., a wholly owned unit of British American Tobacco of London that sells cigarettes under such well-known brands as du Maurier and Player’s.

Imperial spokesman Eric Gagnon suggested the Ontario government was being hypocritical.

“They’re collecting billions of dollars in taxes, and right now they are turning and suing the tobacco companies,” Gagnon said. “This is a legal product and we do it in the way the government dictates us to do it.”

The lawsuit alleges the companies have long known that cigarettes were addictive, and that active and passive smoking can cause diseases such as lung cancer. It also accuses the companies of conspiring to mislead the public about the dangers, suppressing evidence of the risks, and failing to take proper care to stop adolescents from smoking.

Canada’s most populous province said tobacco-related illnesses cost the health care system more than $1.6 billion Canadian (US$1.48 billion) per year. Tobacco use accounts for the deaths of about 13,000 Ontario residents each year, or 36 deaths per day, and almost 500,000 hospital days annually.

In the U.S., all 50 states have launched legal action to recover the costs of smoking-related illnesses. In 1998, the states agreed to a US$25 billion out-of-court settlement.

Last month, a Los Angeles jury recommended that Philip Morris USA pay US$13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer.