Originally published February 21 2009
Philip Morris Ordered to Pay $8 Million to Widow of Chain Smoker
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A U.S. jury has awarded the widow of a chain smoker $8 million in damages: That's $3 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Her lawsuit sought $130 million.
The victory may energize other lawsuits against tobacco companies that knowingly manipulated and sold products designed to addict customers even while it killed them. Interestingly, many of Big Tobacco's historical actions (corruption, deception, bribery, etc.) are now routinely practiced by Big Pharma, which also sells toxic chemicals that kill people.
Sources for this story:
• Health Groups Slam Tobacco Marketing to Women
- US News & World Report
• Tobacco giant Philip Morris ordered to pay
- MSNBC
Authors' Quotes on Philip Morris
Below, you'll find selected quotes from noted authors on the subject of Philip Morris. Feel free to quote these in your own work provided you give proper credit to both the original author quoted here and this NaturalNews page.
Based upon this masterpiece of comprehensive scientific inquiry, Philip Morris then turned around and, with Dr. Fishbein's blessing, used this research as the basis for ad campaigns that ran regularly in the AMA Journal and other medical journals for nearly 20 years. The ads offered doctors free packs of Philip Morris; and the company sent representatives to doctors' offices to give them free cigarettes and talk to them about the health advantages of the company's cigarettes.
- Reclaiming Our Health: Exploding the Medical Myth and Embracing the True Source of Healing by John Robbins
- Available on Amazon.com
Meanwhile, cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, the Journal's biggest single advertiser, also ran into some problems. Blitzing the AMA Journal and thirty-one state and regional medical journals, the start-up tobacco company was eager to publicize its innovative use of diethylene glycol as a hygroscopic agent (to retain moisture), in place of the glycerin used by other manufacturers. Philip Morris pegged its campaign on hyping the breakthrough that its cigarettes were consequently "less irritating to the throat."
- When Healing Becomes A Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies by Kenny Ausubel
- Available on Amazon.com
One Journal ad read, "Patients with coughs were instructed to change to Philip Morris cigarettes. In three out of four cases, the coughs disappeared completely. When these patients changed back to cigarettes made by the ordinary method of manufacture, coughs had returned in one third of the cases. This Philip Morris superiority is due to the employment of diethylene glycol." The campaign was wildly successful and established Philip Morris as a major tobacco player, until, in 1937, seventy-two people died as a result of using a drug called Sulfanalamide Massengill.
- When Healing Becomes A Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies by Kenny Ausubel
- Available on Amazon.com
Cigarette companies' ownership of food and beverage companies: chronology
1969 Philip Morris, Inc. acquires 53% of Miller Brewing.
1970 Philip Morris buys the remaining 47% of Miller Brewing.
1978 Philip Morris acquires 97% of Seven-Up.
1985 R.J. Reynolds buys Nabisco Foods for $4.9 billion, creating RJR-Nabisco, a public company. Philip Morris buys General Foods for $5.6 billion.
1986 Philip Morris sells Seven-Up to PepsiCo.
1988 Philip Morris buys Kraft, Inc. for $13.6 billion. RJR-Nabisco announces plans to "go private"; offers to buy outstanding public shares for $17 billion.
- Food Politics by Marion Nestle
- Available on Amazon.com
Two examples are RJR Nabisco andAltria Group (which owns Philip Morris and Kraft Foods). In 1999 RJR Nabisco split to avoid tobacco boycotts, which also affected their food sales. In 2000 Philip Morris bought Nabisco.) It makes one wonder if it will take the U.S. population and its government as long to realize that the food these companies are feeding us is destroying our health as it did for us to become aware that the cigarettes they were selling us were killing us.
- Food Politics by Marion Nestle
- Available on Amazon.com
"There is not one shred of conclusive evidence to support the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer." George Weissman, president, Philip Morris, 1957. A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers: The "Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers," an advertisement placed in 448 newspapers in 258 American cities in 1954 by U.S. tobacco manufacturers, questioned research which implicated tobacco as a cause of cancer.
- You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore by Bill Sardi
- Available on Amazon.com
Just so you know, the families of an estimated 143,000 Americans who smoke Marlboro's will be scheduling funerals this year. Philip morris, maker of Marlboro's, actually celebrated the demise of its customers on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its Marlboro brand. The "birthday party" for Marlboro was an invitation-only affair with parties held in 49 U.S. cities featuring popular entertainers. Philip Morris is the only company that makes a product that kills its customers and throws a party!
- You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore by Bill Sardi
- Available on Amazon.com
Kraft in turn is the largest food company in the world, but itself is owned by Philip Morris. The extent to which Kraft's political and business strategy is governed by Philip Morris and how Kraft responds to the obesity crisis will be important to follow. Cloaked Connections in Trade Organizations: Food and tobacco money are intertwined in organizations that fight for wholesome-sounding causes. One example is the Center for Consumer Freedom. This group, reportedly started with tobacco money, is now a coalition of restaurant and tavern owners. According to a history of this group assembled by the group PR Watch: Its founder, Rick Berman, approached the Philip Morris tobacco company for $600,000 to begin the organization. The group began in 1995 with funding entirely from Philip Morris. The group now represents alcohol distributors and thousands of restaurants and bars, including Cracker Barrel, Hooters, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, and TGI Friday's.
- Food Fight by Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen
- Available on Amazon.com
Tozzi set up a non-profit think tank called the Institute of Regulatory Policy for Philip Morris. For this, according to the North American writers Rampton and Stauber, his company was paid $880,000. On behalf of Philip Morris the IRP constructed three coalitions to support 'sound science' and tobacco research. Since then and the setting up of his Junk Science website, he has attacked any science that endeavours to criticise industry. In 1998, in what he called a 'special' report on his web page, Milloy came out in defence of the pharmaceutical companies over HRT.
- HRT Licensed to Kill and Maim: The Unheard Voices of Women Damaged by Hormone Replacement Therapy by Martin J. Walker
- Available on Amazon.com
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