This sounds like an exciting lawsuit filed by ERA (Environmental Rights Action) and the Lagos State.
Source: The Guardian.
Lagos sues tobacco firms for N2.7 trillion over health hazards
By Gbolahan Gbadamosi, Deputy Judicial Editor
LAGOS State government and a non-governmental organisation, Environmental Rights Action (ERA) yesterday began before a Lagos High Court a N2.7 trillion compensation suit against British -American Tobacco (BAT)(Nigeria) Limited, International Tobacco Limited and four others for health hazards resulting from cigarette smokers in the state.
The suit, endorsed by the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) also named British-American Plc, British-American Tobacco (Investment) Limited, Phillip Morris International and The Tobacco Institute as defendants.
The claimants' claim is based on allegations that:
- the defendants have
recently admitted that tobacco smoking has severe health implications,
including, but not limited to cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary
complications;
- in
spite of the obvious knowledge of the adverse effect of their product,
the defendants have surreptitiously and fraudulently targeted young and
underage persons in their advertising and marketing. Through the use of
market surveys and sophisticated advertising, the defendants have
utilised such means as music, cinema and fashion, to attract and addict
young and underage persons to smoking. There have been substantiated
instances of free distribution to children at their events;
- the
mandatory health warnings inscribed on the pack is ineffective as the
defendants promote a retail strategy of sale by the stick (the
individual sticks that most consumers buy have no such warnings). This
retail strategy is also a significant causal factor of youth smoking as
it encourages easy access to the products;
- on
account of legal action, liability, and stricter control measures in
the developed world such as the United States (where big tobacco
companies and their lobby arms were mandated to pay compensatory
damages of $260 billion to state governments for public health costs),
the defendants have turned their focus to the developing world with
Nigeria being a top priority. While there is a significant decline in
the smoking rates in the developed world with diminishing health
concerns, in the developing world such as Nigeria, smoking increase at
least by 20 per cent yearly. In Lagos, two persons die daily in the
government-run health facilities, from tobacco-related diseases;
-
beginning from about the middle of the last century, the defendants
have conspired internationally and locally to suppress the fact of the
addictive and narcotic qualities of nicotine (which equals that of
heroin), and also its manipulation to achieve a higher level of
dependability on the product by its user. They have also conspired to
conceal the adverse health effects of smoking to the consuming public,
government and regulators. Their conspiracy also extends to the issue
of second-hand smoke or passive smoke, otherwise referred to as
Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS). Finally, despite possessing the
wherewithal to manufacture safer cigarettes, defendants have conspired
to blatantly suppress any advance in this area; and
- in
perpetrating their conspiracy to commit the several actionable wrongs
alleged in the suit, the defendants acted in concert with one another,
and also employed an astonishing array of lobby groups, bogus research
organisations, and public relations companies.
The Programme Manager, ERA, Mr. Olufemi Akinbode, in his written statement on oath as a potential witness attached to the suit averred that:
"In response to loss of market dominance and income in developed countries, tobacco companies are channelling their massive resources and promotional machinery to lure impressionable youths in the developing countries of Africa to long-term tobacco use," and that
"The defendants have actively endorsed and participated in musical concerts with recognised pop and other celebrated musicians to create an atmosphere that furthers their false deception. The first defendant actively marketed its Benson and Hedges brand by putting on musical concerts dubbed with names like "Wild and Wicked" to attract Nigerian youths. At each BAT Nigeria musical concert, young people are provided with a supply of free Benson and Hedges cigarettes in order to get them addicted to cigarette smoking at a young age so as to make them life-long consumers."
He added that on several occasions he had accompanied relations, friends and members of ERA and the National Co-ordinator of the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) to both public and private hospitals for treatment of tobacco-related diseases.
Specifically, the claimants' causes of action are based on negligence, public nuisance, restitution, strict liability, conspiracy to commit actionable wrongs, among others.
The overall effect of the defendants' course of conduct is that the state government is called upon to expend its resources in treating tobacco-related ailments caused by the use of defendants' products. In the year 2006 alone, there were 9,527 reported cases of tobacco-related diseases in Lagos State hospitals. The state government spends at least N316,000 per month on each of these cases.
The claimants sought against the defendants, jointly and severally, the following reliefs among others:
- an
order of mandatory injunction compelling the defendants, their
successors-in-title, privies and or agents to cease the marketing,
promotion, distribution and sale of tobacco-related products to minors
or under-aged persons;
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