No Tobacco Day

Recently, the world celebrated 'No Tobacco Day' on May 31. Anti-smoking campaigns should move towards logical conclusions. Many third world nations do not have laws for class action suits unlike in nations like the USA and Canada. Recently, a Canadian court (Quebec superior court) awarded smokers C$15.6 billion in damages to smokers in a historic class action suit. The judge has said that the three companies in question were guided by the profit motive and were not interested in the health of their customers. The grounds for damages were that the companies knew a harmful product was being sold but consumers were not told about the risks. There were two types of plaintiffs - those who were seriously ill and those who were unable to quit smoking. Damages were sought by more than a million smokers and former smokers. This judgement has come after a gap of 17 years - cases were launched in 1998 and the trial began in March 2012. Now the three companies will have to split damages and one company alone has been ordered to pay two-thirds of the total damages within 60 days. The companies in question have decided to go in for appeal. Such class action suits need to be initiated to deter smoking and tobacco-related products.

Deendayal M. Lulla
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