Joining a wave of anti-tobacco litigation, the Russian government has filed suit against 20 United States tobacco companies in a Florida court
Joining a wave of anti-tobacco litigation, the Russian government has filed suit against 20 United States tobacco companies in a Florida court. The lawsuit claims damages in an as yet unspecified amount for the companies’ alleged role in “conspiracy with the object of deceit,” “conscious lies” and “suffering caused.”
Dr. Allan Handysides, health department director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide, says that he hopes the move, at the very least, raises public awareness of the “staggering growth of smoking rates” and related public health problems in many non-Western countries.
“As increases in government regulations and restrictions make marketing tobacco products more difficult in many Western countries,” he says, “tobacco companies have turned their efforts to the vast, largely unregulated, markets of the developing world.
“Russia is one of the many countries, along with places such as South Africa, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, that have endured an onslaught of almost unchecked tobacco marketing over the past decade,” he adds. “This has appeared to be a cynical move to exploit countries that have not yet developed a legislative response to the marketing of tobacco.”
Of all its domestic industries, Russia’s tobacco industry has attracted the highest level of direct foreign investment-an amount estimated at $1.5 billion has been pumped into production and marketing of tobacco products.
Smoking rates in Russia have increased dramatically since the fall of Communism. Russian ministry of health statistics show that in 1985 an estimated one out of two men smoked. The figure for smokers is now closer to two out of three men. Among women, the increase has been even greater, with the number of female smokers rising from 10 percent in 1985 to a current level of more than 30 percent of the population.
The lawsuit was filed in Florida’s District Court, where a recent case resulted in a $145 billion punitive damages award against a group of tobacco companies. The Russian lawsuit alleges that “due largely to Big Tobacco’s own fraud, the [Russian] Federation has not adopted stricter anti-tobacco measures.” The Ukraine, Nicaragua, and Guatemala are among other countries that have unsuccessfully sought judgments against tobacco companies in U.S. courts.
Since its formation in 1863, the Adventist Church has promoted a tobacco-free lifestyle. During decades when the health problems associated with tobacco use were not widely known, the Adventist Church developed stop-smoking programs that became the proto-type of those later adopted by many governments and public health programs. The “Breathe-free” program, created by the Adventist Church health department in 1985, is now utilized in more than 50 countries, including Russia.