Appeal Against Cigarette Companies

Jerry Weingart has been waiting more than a decade for the companies he believes killed his wife to be brought to justice. But at 89, the Boynton Beach man doesn’t have the stamina to spend the whole day in court. Holding a cane, he listened on Wednesday morning while one of his attorneys explained to a jury why three Pall Mall cigarette makers should be held responsible for his wife’s death. But Weingart headed home before tobacco attorneys launched their full counterattack

Like in the two other tobacco trials that have been held in Palm Beach County, millions of dollars are at stake.

The cases are among roughly 8,000 that were spawned statewide when the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion jury verdict in a class-action lawsuit. While upholding the jury’s findings that cigarette-makers lied about the dangers of smoking, the high court ruled that each smoker had to prove how they were uniquely harmed by cheap cigarettes.

Weingart’s attorneys said they are seeking damages for the years smoking took off Claire Weingart’s life. Instead of spending their “golden years” together, Jerry Weingart became widower in 1997 when his wife of 54 years died at age 73, attorney Hardee Bass told jurors.

A heavy smoker for roughly 50 years, she didn’t stop smoking even when lung cancer spread to her brain, Bass said. She began smoking in the 1940s when no one suspected smoking posed any health risks. She was powerless to stop because cigarette-makers R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and Lorillard — the companies that produced her brands of choice — turned her into an addict, he said.

“This case is about a promise the cigarette industry made to a generation of people — the World War II generation,” Bass said during opening arguments. “It’s about the lies they told a generation of smokers. It’s about the truth they hid from a generation of smokers.”

Using company documents, he showed how the companies orchestrated a misinformation campaign to counter growing evidence that smoking kills.

“Claire Weingart was an industry success story,” he said.

Tobacco industry attorneys countered that there is no evidence Weingart was influenced by the documents. Attorney Kenneth Reilly acknowledged that tobacco chiefs made some “wrong-headed” decisions. But, he said, there is no evidence Weingart knew about the statements or used them to justify her decision to keep smoking. Like millions of other smokers, she could have quit.

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Tobacco Company to Develop Products without Tobacco

British American Tobacco (BAT) PLC announced their plans to create a new company called Nicoventures Ltd. which will produce products made without tobacco and with only pure nicotine in an effort to offer a safer alternative to smokers. Even though a spokeswoman of the organization said the products the company is considering aren’t on the market yet and declined to give any more details, we do know that two subsidiaries of Altria Group are testing spit-free tobacco-coated toothpicks in an effort to offer tobacco in a less socially scrutinized way.

If successful, the products of Nicoventures could help wean smokers off cigarettes. It is the hope of BAT that Nicoventures will be a highly profitable business that will help make up for the loss in profits due to the decrease in cigarette sales and the scrutiny faced by tobacco companies. “Nicoventures could be a hugely positive development from the public health point of view, in reducing the harm from smoking”, said David Sweanor of the University of Ottawa in Canada. However, he did admit he was a bit skeptic, saying that nothing currently on the market had the ability to match the sensational and psychological effects of a cigarette that smokers crave for.

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KT&G rules slim cigarette market with best-selling Esse

What is the best-selling cigarette brand in the world? Most smokers would name one from multinational juggernauts Philip Morris, British-American Tobacco (BAT) or Japan Tobacco.
As far as super-slim cigarettes are concerned, however, Korea’s KT&G dominates with its Esse cigarettes brand, which has steadily remained in the lead.
The country’s largest tobacco manufacturer said Monday that it sold 42.2 billion cigarettes of Esse last year to chalk up a 44.5-percent growth from 2009 when 29.2 billion were sold.
In particular, the Seoul-headquartered outfit almost doubled its exports of Esse from 11.2 billion cigarettes in 2009 to 20.8 billion last year to top the podium in competition with Virginia Slims marketed by Philip Morris and Vogue by BAT.
In 2009, the latest data available, Esse racked up sales of 29.2 billion cigarettes compared to 17 billion for Virginia Slim and 11 billion for Vogue, according to London-based consultancy Euromonitor International.
“Since its inception in 1996, we have nurtured Esse as a global brand. It is currently available in around 40 states and regions including Russia and the Middle East,’’ said Huh Up, who is in charge of the firm’s global businesses.
“In particular, Esse is presently the top-selling super-slim cigarette in Iran, Uzbekistan and Indonesia. In Russia it accounts for more than 10 percent in the segment.’’
Huh added that the former state monopoly has tapped into the global markets throughout the past decade as the local market showed saturation.
In achieving its initiative to make Esse a global product, KT&G demonstrated its potential at various events.
Currently, it accounts for 85 percent of the domestic consumption of super-slim tobaccos.
When its sub brand Esse Soun debuted in 2006, it took just eight days to reach the benchmark of selling 10 million packs in the shortest period in the history of the company.
Esse also boasts of other sub brands such as the premium Esse Golden Leaf as well as Esse Edge which targets young smokers.
“On top of exporting Esse to other countries, we have established a set of factories abroad to generate products with local relevance,’’ Huh said.
“In addition to Esse, we are determined to foster a host of globally famous brands through vigorous efforts to become a genuine international player.’’
Indeed, KT&G channeled up to $100 million in order to set up production lines of the Esse products in the Kaluga region, approximately 150 kilometers of south of Moscow, last October.
The factories churn out 4.6 billion cigarettes per year targeting the smokers of the world’s second-largest market in terms of sales, trailing just China.
In addition, the company also operates cigarette factories in Turkey and Iran, both of which opened in early 2008 with a combined annual capacity of 5.6 billion cigarettes.

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