The nation’s largest cigarette manufacturers on Thursday said the Justice Department’s proposed corrective statements about smoking’s dangers are inflammatory and inaccurate and violate guidelines set by the court overseeing the lawsuit.
The tobacco companies, including Philip Morris USA, maker of top-selling Marlboro cigarettes, also asked a federal appeals court to toss out the 12-year-old lawsuit, saying the Food and Drug Administration’s authority over the industry makes the court’s involvement unnecessary.
Last week, the Justice Department released 14 “corrective statements” that it says the companies should be required to make as part of the lawsuit. It wants the companies to admit that they lied to the public and would force the industry to pay for an advertising campaign of self-criticism.
But the companies said the proposed statements don’t meet the court’s requirements that the statements be “purely factual and uncontroversial.” They also said the proposed statements are “plainly designed soley to shame and humiliate” the companies.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the tobacco industry’s latest filings in the case.
The government’s proposed statements cover the addictiveness of nicotine, the lack of health benefit from “low tar,” ”ultra-light” and “mild” cigarettes and negative health effects of second-hand smoke. The proposed statements are labeled “Paid for” by the name of the cigarette manufacturer “under order of a federal district court.”
One of the government’s statement says: “A federal court is requiring tobacco companies to tell the truth about cigarette smoking. Here’s the truth: … Smoking kills 1,200 Americans. Every day.”
Another of the government’s proposed statements begins: “We falsely marketed low tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes to keep people smoking and sustain our profits.”
“For decades, we denied that we controlled the level of nicotine delivered in cigarettes,” a third statement says. “Here’s the truth. … We control nicotine delivery to create and sustain smokers’ addiction, because that’s how we keep customers coming back.”
In 2006, the judge in the case, Gladys Kessler, ruled that the tobacco industry had concealed the dangers of smoking for decades. The proposed statements by the companies would be the remedy for that violation.
Kessler has said she wants the industry to pay for various types of ads, both broadcast and print, but she has not made a final decision on what the statements will say, where they must be placed or for how long.
The companies have escaped from having to pay the hundreds of billions of dollars that the government has sought to collect from them. Lower courts have said the government is not entitled to collect $280 billion in past profits or $14 billion for a national campaign to curb smoking.
Still, the companies argued Thursday that the FDA’s authority to regulate the industry should eliminate the court’s involvement and the corrective statements.
The FDA won the authority to regulate tobacco in June 2009. The law doesn’t let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco, just regulate what goes into tobacco products, require the ingredients be publicized and limit how tobacco is marketed, especially to young people.
The defendants in the case include Philip Morris USA’s parent company, Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc.; Greensboro, N.C.-based Lorillard Inc., and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and its parent company, Reynolds American Inc., based in Winston-Salem, N.C.
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The Pacific Palisades wildfires torched the home of "This Is Us" star Milo Ventimiglia, perhaps most poignantly destroying the father-to-be's newly installed crib.
CBS cameras caught the actor walking through his charred house for the first time, standing in what was once his kitchen and looking at a neighborhood in ruin. "Your heart just breaks."
He and his pregnant wife, Jarah Mariano, evacuated Tuesday with their dog and they watched on security cameras as the flames ripped through the house, destroying everything, including a new crib.
"There's a kind of shock moment where you're going, 'Oh, this is real. This is happening.' What good is it to continue watching?' And then at a certain point we just turned it off, like 'What good is it to continue watching?'"
Firefighters sought to make gains Friday during a respite in the heavy winds that fanned the flames as numerous groups pledged aid to help victims and rebuild, including a $15 million donation pledge from the Walt Disney Co.
More stars learn their homes are gone
While seeing the remains of his home, Ventimiglia was struck by a connection to his "This Is Us" character, Jack Pearson, who died after inhaling smoke in a house fire. "It's not lost on me life imitating art."
Mandy Moore, who played Ventimiglia's wife on "This Is Us," nearly lost her home in the Eaton fire, which scorched large areas of the Altadena neighborhood. She said Thursday that part of her house is standing but is unlivable, and her husband lost his music studio and all his instruments.
Mel Gibson's home is "completely gone," his publicist Alan Nierob confirmed Friday. The Oscar winner revealed the loss of his home earlier Friday while appearing on Joe Rogan's... Read More