<i>Healthy</i> Smokers Sue Tobacco Companies

Healthy Smokers Sue Tobacco Companies

CNSNews.com
Friday, Jan. 5, 2001

Sick smokers aren't the only ones suing U.S. tobacco companies. Jury selection began Thursday in West Virginia in a class-action lawsuit demanding that tobacco companies provide free medical exams for smokers who are still healthy but who might become sick because they choose to keep smoking.

Jeff Furr, an attorney for R.J. Reynolds, called it "an extremely unique case – to have uninjured plaintiffs who have knowingly and voluntarily exposed themselves to the most widely known risk in our society, and who are not sick" suing for medical care.

Scott Segal, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, is quoted as saying, "West Virginians are entitled to obtain monitoring as a result of their exposure to a very toxic group of substances."

Wire services say the lawsuit was filed on behalf of about 250,000 West Virginians who have smoked a pack a day in the five years since 1995, but who do not yet have a smoking illness. The suit claims the tobacco companies did not fully disclose the risks of smoking and that the warning labels on cigarette packages are inadequate.