My challenge to anyone to unearth anything that the tobacco industry has ever said on the subjects of Helicobacter pylori, Chlamydia pneumoniae, human papillomavirus, chorioamnionitis, or cockroach antigens has brought not a single response, exactly as I predicted, and nothing came out in this trial.

There was not even a word about EPA corruption.

Neither we nor the rest of the world are fooled by Brown & Williamson's sniveling and disingenuous press release claiming that "The Broin settlement does not alter Brown & Williamson's position on environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), which was the central issue of the trial. This settlement represents a practical solution to the class action issues in the case and in no way should be read as a change in our strongly-held view that the collective evidence is insufficient to conclude that ETS is a cause of disease." (Brown & Williamson's Statememt Regarding Broin Settlement, PR 10/10 1403). The proper way to make such a statement is by a competent and proper defense, not with mere empty words lacking anything to back them up.

The joint release with the other tobacco companies (PM, RJR and Lorillard, PR 10/10 1038 Tobacco Industry Statement on Broin Settlement) didn't even bother with that much of a fig leaf. The tobacco lawyers who perpetrated this outrage ought to have said, "SEE! WE'RE ANTI-SMOKERS TOO! WE'RE ONLY PRETENDING TO DEFEND THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY! WE'RE JUST OUT TO GET RICH WHILE RIPPING THEM OFF!"

Even the dumbest ordinary criminal defendant would have fired his lawyers for the kind of performance they turned in. If this were such a case, the ACLU would be getting involved on the grounds that the accused must be clinically mentally retarded and incapable of meaningful participation in his own defense.

It is the press release by ASH which captured the truth, for a change: "The tobacco industry's willingness to settle rather than fight a massive law suit brought by nonsmoking airline employees who claimed they were injured tobacco smoke should send a strong message to all businesses: "prohibit smoking or get sued." (ASH: Tobacco Industry Settles Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Case; Decision Sends Strong Warning to Any Businesses Still Permitting Smoking. PR 10/10 1214.)

And, as this press release shows, the anti-smokers greatest coup is the tobacco industry's abject surrender to their fraudulent ETS-heart disease claims - WHICH WE SMOKERS HAVE EXPOSED! "In view of new evidence that regular exposure doubles a nonsmoking worker's risk of dying of a heart attack, that exposed nonsmokers have a known carcinogen in their blood, that exposure compounds the risks of heart disease by lowering the "good" cholesterol (HDL), and that secondhand smoke kills more Americans each year than automobiles, AIDS, guns, or all crimes, even the tobacco industry realized it could no longer win on this issue in court." (Quoting from ASH).

Those purported "ETS deaths," by the latest anti-smoker estimates by the California EPA, in fact amount to 3000 lung cancer deaths, based on the corrupt EPA report, and inflated with ex-smokers; 1900-18,600 "low birthweight" deaths based entirely on defective studies designed to blame smoking for deaths caused by chorioamnionitis; 1900-2700 SIDS deaths, which likewise exploit socioeconomic disadvantage for deaths which by definition are "unexplained" and actually due to undiscovered causes; and most of all, upon 35,000 to 62,000 deaths which were really due to Helicobacter pylori and Chlamydia pneumoniae infection. Plus there are asthma illness claims based on nothing but methodologically defective studies lacking examination of the strongest risk factor yet discovered, namely allergy to cockroaches.

We smokers would have won that ETS case, and annihilated the bulk of the anti-smokers' active smoking claims as well. If the tobacco industry is unable to win on these issues, it is solely because THEY DO NOT WANT TO WIN. THEY WANT TO LOSE. THEY ARE JUST PUTTING ON AN ACT TO DECEIVE THE PUBLIC, INCLUDING THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS, WHILE THEY SELL US DOWN THE RIVER AND GO OUT OF BUSINESS.

And funding the corrupt science of our worst enemies in the process! Meanwhile, they have never given so much as cent to support our efforts.

Let the entire world bear witness to the fact that justice in America is a complete sham and a fraud, and nothing but lynch law, founded on ignorance and hysteria built by media conspiracy and propaganda, where truth, freedom, and justice are raped and murdered, without recourse for the victims.

Courtesy of Carol Thompson 08/23/93
Smokers' Rights Action Group
P.O. Box 259575
Madison, WI 53725-9575
Phone: 608-249-4568