Radioactive" cigarettes cited in Israeli lawsuit

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

DUH!!!!!!

And where does this fit on the most "stupid" lawsuit filed rankings!
-------------

"Radioactive" cigarettes cited in Israeli lawsuit

JERUSALEM, June 22 (Reuters) - An Israeli lawsuit against U.S. 
cigarette companies is citing an alleged internal Philip Morris 
<MO.N> memo as evidence that the biggest U.S. cigarette maker made 
cigarettes containing naturally radioactive tobacco. 

Attorney Amos Hausner, son of the prosecutor who sent Nazi Adolf 
Eichmann to the gallows, is fighting the biggest suit in Israel's 
history to make one Israeli and six U.S. tobacco companies pay up to 
$8 billion for allegedly poisoning and possibly irradiating Israelis 
with cigarettes. 

"Whether the amount of radioactivity is harmful or not, we don't know 
but it is quite possible it is harmful because of the simple reason 
that nobody is checking," Hausner said in an interview with Reuters 
on Thursday. 

The case was brought on behalf of the Clalit national health fund 
which represents 60 percent of Israelis. 

It will be the first major suit to use what is alleged to be an 
internal Philip Morris memo found in the Minnesota archive that 
cigarette companies were forced to establish by U.S. court order, 
Hausner said. 

Marked "Confidential," the purported memo dated April 2, 1980, says 
that phosphate fertilisers and especially superphosphate fertilisers 
used in tobacco fields can contain natural uranium. 

"Soils to which these products (the fertilisers) are applied show an 
increase in radioactivity," the document says, adding that the by-
products of decaying uranium, lead and polonium, were present in 
tobacco and smoke. Polonium is radioactive. 

The document concludes that while it is unlikely that a person would 
get lung cancer by inhaling the polonium present in the tobacco, 
"evidence to date, however, does not allow one to state that this is 
an impossibility." 

The alleged memo, a copy of which Hausner provided to Reuters, notes 
that suggestions that Philip Morris use a different fertiliser would 
be "a valid but expensive point." 

SUIT SEEKS $8 BILLION 

Hausner said cigarette makers usually defended themselves in court by 
claiming that smokers knew the risks and chose to smoke anyway. But 
he pointed out that smokers never knew or in any way agreed to smoke 
radioactive cigarettes. 

"Nobody, but nobody, assumes the risk of inhaling something 
radioactive," Hausner said. 

Philip Morris attorney Chuck Nunley told Reuters the issue of 
polonium in tobacco has been studied by scientists and even the U.S. 
surgeon-general who, the lawyer said, concluded in 1971 that it was 
significant only if found in relatively high concentrations. 

"As I understand it, polonium is a naturally occurring element that 
there is a background level of in the environment. It's present in 
trace amounts in lots of things that we eat," Nunley said. 

Hausner is seeking $2 billion in damages allegedly caused by the 
tobacco products and by the companies' actions and around $6 billion 
as damages for smokers who he says will die or become ill in the 
future. 

The case, filed in 1998, is still at a preliminary stage. Once it 
goes to trial, Hausner said, he will demand that Philip Morris 
provide details about how widely the fertilisers were used and 
whether they are still used. 

"Since cigarettes are not regulated, nobody knows what's inside them 
and what's not inside them," Hausner said. 

He said that it was possible the radioactive fertiliser was used by 
other cigarette companies besides Philip Morris. 

"The document makes no distinction between different manufacturers. 
It's according to where the tobacco has been grown and what 
fertilisers were used," he said. 

Hausner has campaigned against smoking for years, first forcing 
Israel's army to ban cigarette advertising from a magazine given to 
soldiers and then helping make El Al Israel Airlines implement a non-
smoking policy on its flights. 

About 10,000 people die every year in Israel from smoking- related 
illnesses. 

"In Israel, if you put together all the deaths from wars, terror 
activities, road accidents, murders, suicide, illegal drugs -- all of 
these together -- you wouldn't even reach one half of the number of 
deaths from smoking," Hausner said. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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