The health disaster caused by the tobacco industry is still ongoing and needs immediate attention

BY PAUL JUNOR

The announced lawsuit seeking $500 billion against the tobacco companies could potentially be settled. The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) issued a press release on October 18^th, 2024, in which it expressed reservations. The Ontario government is supportive, but there have been mixed reactions from others.

The proposed lawsuit would dispense the following:

• $24.7 billion over time to provinces and territories, including $6.3 billion up front, and the remainder paid out as a percentage of tobacco company profits, including 85% of net after-tax profits in the first five years, and then 80% declining to 70% in subsequent years, until the $24.7 billion is paid
• $4.1 billion to the Quebec class action plaintiffs
• $2.5 billion to individual victims across Canada beyond the Quebec class action plaintiffs
• $1.0 billion to a Foundation to fund research for the diagnosis and treatment of tobacco-related disease.

Rob Cunningham, lawyer for the CCS and Senior Policy Analyst states, “The approach in the proposed settlement falls massively short and fails to protect the future health of Canadians properly. How can such an approach possibly be justified when we continue to have millions of Canadians who smoke each year and tobacco remains the leading cause of cancer death? This settlement fails to support public health efforts to reduce smoking.”

Cunningham is supportive of the $1 billion funding, which will go towards the foundation independent of the government but expressed concerns that it will not be involved in proactive measures such as: smoking cessation initiatives, awareness campaigns, or public health programs.

Cunningham would like to see specific changes before approval. He notes, “The foundation must have the ability to fund a full range of initiatives to reduce tobacco use, such as smoking cessation and community programs, among others. Moreover, as in the U.S, the settlement in Canada should contain policy measures to reduce tobacco use such as banning remaining tobacco promotion and should require public disclosure of secret tobacco company internal documents.”

Some of the data presented by Canada Cancer Society include:

• Smoking is the leading cause of disease and death in Canada with 16,000 deaths in Ontario and 46,000 in Canada
• The rate of smoking is 11.4% for age 18 and older according to 2023 stats
• About 3.6 million Canadians are smokers

The Canada Cancer Society highlights some of the wrongful actions of the tobacco industry such as:

• Marketing to underage teenagers
• Advertising to women with themes of slimness and fashion
• Denying that smoking caused cancer and other diseases
• Failing to warn consumers adequately
• Using misleading advertising, including for so-called “light” and “mild” cigarettes
• Lobbying aggressively against tobacco control laws

Cunningham states, “Without investing in significant measures to reduce tobacco use, this proposed settlement misses the very intention of the lawsuits in the first place, which is to curtail the damages caused by the tobacco industry. The health disaster caused by the tobacco industry is still ongoing and needs immediate attention, which this proposed settlement fails to do. This is a deal that won’t reduce smoking.”

The three major tobacco companies in Canada include:

• Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. (owned by British American Tobacco)
• Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. (owned by Philip Morris International)
• JTI-Macdonald Corp (owned by Japan Tobacco)

Gar Mahood of the Campaign for Justice on Tobacco Fraud acknowledged the settlement is a “Hollow victory. The settlement went from $500 billion in claimed damages (the costs to the health care system for treating smoking-related illness) to just over $24.7 billion. It’s a financial cave-in that will be paid for by current addicted smokers, the most at-risk group in the proposed settlement, and youth who will become addicted.”

“It is a meaningful first step in acknowledging decades of harm,” states Jessica Buckley, President and CEO at the Lung Health Foundation (LHF) notes further, “But financial restitution can’t make up for the loss of life. It can’t make up for the experiences of Canadians who have suffered through lung cancer and COPD. It’s not enough for people who are struggling to breathe right now.”

“It is crucial to ensure that more resources are allocated to lung health prevention programs, research and education efforts.”

She is not sure if the funds will go directly into practical steps. “LHF is pushing fit a Smoke-Free Generation, a move that if enacted, would protect youth from addiction by ensuring that youth born after a certain date would never legally become of age to purchase tobacco products.”

Jacob Shelley, co-director of the Health Ethics, Law and Policy lab at Western University shares that he is pleased that plaintiffs will receive restitution after five years of going through the courts. He states, “It’s not a meaningful individual victory in the sense of like a big payout, but it’s meaningful and there is going to be an opportunity for collection on this claim, which started decades ago, and that there is recognition and an imposition of liability for the failure to warn about the risks associated with the use of this product.”