A recent study out of UCLA, published in the January issue of the “American Journal of Ophthalmology,” has found that Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) occurs more than five times more often among female smokers over 80-years-old compared to non-smoking women of the same age. Although this recent study was gender and age specific, this study was the first I had read that causally related smoking cigarettes and potential blindness. It also made me wonder if there is any ailment to which smoking cigarettes will not eventually be linked.

AMD is a disease that causes blurring of one’s central vision, resulting from damage to the nerve cells contained in a small area in the back of the eye. That small area in the back of the eye, known as the macula, enables one to see the fine detail in things that the eyes are focusing on. Macular degeneration makes it harder to do things that require central vision; life activities such as driving, reading and facial recognition become monumental tasks. Smoking cigarettes, according to a 2005 study published in the Eye journal contributes to this damage and subsequent degeneration by decreasing blood and oxygen flow to the eye, resulting in mini-clots in the macula.

If challenged, cigarette advocates would surely refute such findings, citing age as the cause of AMD rather than cigarettes. Certainly, as its name would suggest, age is a risk factor for AMD; but experts believe that the risk begins as early as age 50. And what is undeniable is, like the effects of age on the body, the damage from smoking is likewise cumulative over time. Put another way, according to Michael Rosenberg, M.D., chairman of ophthalmology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, “the older you get, the higher the risk for AMD itself, regardless of smoking, that age combined with more time smoking increases your risk.” And according to the UCLA study the increased risk can eventually be as much as five-fold.

Not that smokers need another disease caused by cigarette addiction, but add potential blindness to the laundry list of injuries suffered by them. I wonder how long tobacco companies have known this?

You just have to love Big Tobacco.

Produce a product you know kills people; hide or deflect all the information that would alert the public of the totality of the dangers; engineer nicotine delivery in a way that maximizes addiction and write memos talking about the whole scheme as if you are immune from being held responsible. Then, when you get caught, you rewrite history and hide behind “freedom of choice”.

In an undated memo, Colin Greig, a research and development gentleman for Big Tobacco discusses marketing scenarios which, at least in part, involved his unscientific testing of the way in which his mother-in-law smoked and enjoyed cigarettes; together with her level of addiction. Clearly this must have been the classic “hate your in-law” scenario.

Colin Greig Document

Let me hit the high points of good ‘ol Colin’s memo:

• Cigarettes deliver their drug (think nicotine here) to the brain faster than “other drugs” such as “marijuana, amphetamines, and alcohol”.
• Nicotine “is about the lowest dose” drug available (that still succeeds with addiction).
• Cigarettes are a cheap drug.
• Cigarettes are “a relatively cheap and efficient delivery system…” (think drug delivery here).

Mr. Greig includes in his analysis a quote from Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”:

“A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure.

It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?”

And, then, Colin concludes with a statement that could not better illustrate Big Tobacco’s methods of operation all along:

“Let us provide the exquisiteness, and hope that they, our consumers, continue to remain unsatisfied. All we would want then is a larger bag to carry the money to the bank.”

Translation: Let’s continue to keep smokers hopelessly addicted and our only problem will be what to do with all that money!

Previous litigation has disclosed other writings by Big Tobacco with which they must now be seen with in the Florida sunshine:

(more…)

You have to love Big Tobacco.  Nothing gets them down – no sir! They can cry foul with the best of ‘em; even when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

First, a jury sees through their smoke and mirrors in a trial down in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. The jury finds in favor of a plaintiff who has and continues to suffer from COPD; awarding over $300 million dollars. We know the jury saw through their smoke and mirrors because they hammered Big Tobacco with over $260 million in punitive damages.

If anyone sees the evidence setting forth the conduct of Big Tobacco over the last several centuries, you can not help but be surprised and outraged that an industry has been allowed to get away with the type of conduct they have displayed.

The response to the verdict by Philip Morris? It was interesting:

“From the beginning, this case was marked by a fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional trial plan that allowed the jury to rely on findings by a prior jury that have no connection to the plaintiff.”

Was the prior jury’s findings wrong? They do not say so.

How was the trial plan “fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional”? Simply because the jury was permitted to hear the findings of a prior jury?

So what has gotten Big Tobacco’s “goat”? They do not like that a higher court has made findings they are, well, “uncomfortable” with. A higher court that has quite clearly set forth things like:

• Smoking cigarettes causes disease, including cancers, COPD, and heart disease
• Nicotine in cigarettes is addictive
• Big Tobacco placed cigarettes on the market that were defective
• Big Tobacco placed cigarettes on the market that were unreasonably dangerous
• Big Tobacco concealed or omitted material information about cigarette dangers (think lie here)
• Big Tobacco issued false or misleading information about the dangers of cigarette smoking
• Big Tobacco concealed or omitted information about the addictive nature of cigarettes
• Big Tobacco was negligent in its mnanufacture of cigarettes

Now, Big Tobacco is in a lather that jurors understand they lied to the American public. Big Tobacco can not believe that jurors actually listened to the large amount of evidence that illustrates their campaign to hopelessly addict people to cigarettes and the continued campaign to keep smokers addicted.

After all, when the “seven dwarves” testified in front of congress, they swore under oath that nicotine was not addictive. Big Tobacco simply can not believe we did not believe them. After all, they swore!

A message to Big Tobacco: get over yourselves; the public understands you lied and schemed to addict Americans to a drug more addictive and destructive than most “illegal drugs” we spend billions fighting to keep out of our society. And, Big Tobacco, the public understands you paid good money to be allowed to market your drug. Oh yeah, Big Tobacco, after making billions and billions on the scheme….it is in fact time to pay the price for decades of deception!

Phillip Morris was found to be 38% at fault in the death of a smoker. This is the verdict delivered by a jury of good citizens on August 14, 2009, in Broward County, Florida.

Philip Morris and their lawyers, presumably, blame the judge and bad rulings made by him. Altria’s (Philip Morris’ owner) senior vice-president, Murray Garrick said that “Today’s verdict is the result of a severely prejudicial trial plan. From beginning to end, this case was marked by legal rulings that should be reversed on appeal”
Imagine a cigarette company denying their product had anything at all to do with the death of a smoker. Apparently, Philip Morris and Altria do not believe they shared even 38% of the blame. It seems that Big Tobacco is not going to ever accept responsibility for producing a product, which they have manipulated and adulterated to an extent that it really has little connection with original tobacco.

But why change your conduct if you are a multi-billion dollar empire that has produced a drug for 75 years that the FDA would never allow to be marketed today? Why change your concern for billions in profits over dead victims of your product?
In 1958, The Tobacco Institute (a propaganda organization created by Big Tobacco) spewed a press release that, in part, said the following:

“It is the position of the Tobacco Institute (and so Big Tobacco) that the health of the American people is more important than dividends for the tobacco or any other industry.”

Apparently, that was as false as their claims for the last 70 years that cigarettes are not addictive and cigarettes do not cause lung cancer, COPD or any of the other dozens of diseases we know they cause.

To be fair, this statement was made by Big Tobacco before they knew, that we knew, that they knew for a long time that cigarettes would make people sick and kill them. So, sure they were not really on a search for the truth; in fact, they were lying, but hey, the health of the American people was what was important to them. Billions of dollars in profit was not what was driving this industry. Greed was in the back seat to charity and compassion for Big Tobacco.

When the CEO’s of all Big Tobacco stood before congress and stated the following where was the charity?:

(more…)