Tobacco coverup

[Guest guest]

Here are a couple sections from the official Executive Summary

regarding the tobacco coverup. If you get a chance, you should read

the entire document.

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By late 1953, there had been at least five published epidemiologic

investigations, as well as others identifying and examining

carcinogenic components in tobacco smoke and their effects. The

researchers conducting these studies had come to a categorical

understanding of the link between smoking and lung cancer.

In response to this growing body of evidence that smoking caused lung

cancer, Defendants and their agents joined together and launched

their coordinated scheme in the early 1950s. Defendants developed and

implemented a unified strategy that sought to reassure the public

that there was no evidence that smoking causes disease. At the end

of 1953, the chief executives of the five major cigarette

manufacturers in the United States at the time – Philip , R.J.

Reynolds, Brown & on, Lorillard, and American – met at the

Plaza Hotel in New York City with representatives of the public

relations firm Hill & Knowlton and agreed to jointly conduct a long

term public relations campaign to counter the growing evidence

linking smoking as a cause of serious diseases. The meeting spawned

an association-in-fact enterprise ( " Enterprise " ) to execute a

fraudulent scheme in furtherance of their overriding common

objective – to preserve and enhance the tobacco industry's profits by

maximizing the numbers of smokers and number of cigarettes smoked and

to avoid adverse liability judgments and adverse publicity. The

fraudulent scheme would continue for the next five decades.

In short, Defendants' scheme to defraud permeated and influenced all

facets of Defendants' conduct – research, product development,

advertising, marketing, legal, public relations, and communications –

in a manner that has resulted in extraordinary profits for the past

half-century, but has had devastating consequences for the public's

health.

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Sound familiar?

[Guest guest]

What happened with this lawsuit?

I remember hearing about it quite a bit a few years ago but then it seemed

to drop off the map.

Did any of them serve time in jail?