Summary

TAPE_NUMBER: EF00/0351 IN_TIME: 03:07:01 - 07:20:01 - 10:00:44 LENGTH: 02:19 SOURCES: All APTN except shots 9-11 = ABC RESTRICTIONS: ABC = No Access North America/CBC, All No Access Internet FEED: VARIOUS (THE ABOVE TIME-CODE IS TIME-OF-DAY) SCRIPT: English/Nat An American jury has awarded a woman who is dying of lung cancer twenty million (m) U-S dollars to be paid by two American tobacco companies. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris plan to appeal the verdict even before the jury decides what extra compensatory damages will be awarded to Leslie Whiteley and her family. Leslie Whiteley developed lung cancer after smoking for 25 years. For the first time the tobacco industry has lost to someone who started smoking after 1969, when companies began putting government-required health warnings on cigarette packs. Around the U-S, juries have awarded damages to individual smokers only five other times. But three of those verdicts were overturned and the two others are still under appeal. The industry has yet to pay anything in any of those cases. In this latest case, the tobacco companies argued that Whiteley harmed herself by her admitted use of marijuana, by smoking during pregnancy and by disregarding warnings on cigarette packages. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I think Philip Morris intends to vigorously defend these cases, I think the facts in this case and in other cases make it very clear that the risks of cigarette smoking are very well-known and have been common knowledge for a long period of time. Smokers like Mrs Whiteley were well aware and well-informed of those risks, when they decided to smoke, and most juries who hear this evidence determine that smokers should be responsible for those decisions." SUPER CAPTION: William Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris Attorney 40-year-old Leslie Whiteley developed lung cancer after smoking for 25 years. The case is seen as a milestone as it was the first to hold cigarette makers responsible for people who took up smoking after the posting of warning labels on the packages. Madelyn Chamber, a lawyer for the family, says the companies themselves denied knowledge of the dangers of smoking, both before and after Whiteley became addicted. SOUNDBITE: (English) "She was addicted. It's a very very simple fact. And also she believed the tobacco-companies. They were saying that it was safe. They were saying it hadn't been proven. We have some documents here that we would like to pass around to everyone, one of them is a letter to a fifth-grade-class in Santa Monica, California, in response to a request from a teacher and from the students for more information and basically in that letter the tobacco companies response is it hasn't been proven and when it's known we let people know and the case has not been made. That letter is from 1972." SUPER CAPTION: Madelyn Chamber, Whiteley attorney The jury deliberated for two full days before reaching its verdict and found that cigarette makers deliberately mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. The companies say they'll appeal if the judge upholds the verdict. SHOTLIST: San Francisco, California, USA and Ottawa, Canada - 27 March 2000 File QUALITY AS INCOMING APTN - File, USA 1. Tobacco being processed 2. Cigarettes in processing plant 3. Marlboro cigarette packages being processed APTN - 19 January 2000, Ottawa 4. Various of cigarettes being manufactured 5. Various of cigarettes on shelf APTN - File, USA 6. Child holding a box of cigarettes in a store 7. Close up of cigarette box 8. Child buying cigarettes ABC - 27 March, San Francisco 9. SOUNDBITE: (English) William Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris attorney 10. Still photo of Leslie Whiteley 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Madelyn Chamber, Whiteley attorney APTN - File, USA 12. Cigarettes being made in a processing plant XFA?