Dangers of Smoking

© Aaron Rastan

Tobacco industry and racketeering practices! Are you sure? Back in 1999, the Clinton administration accused the tobacco industry of racketeering charges, public deception about the dangers of smoking, and covering up the knowledge they had to the contrary.

A federal judge ruled in August of 2006, stating that the tobacco industry for decades been involved in conspiracy to hide the dangers of smoking from those who smoke.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler put it this way: "Over the course of more than 50 years, defendants lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public, including smokers and the young people they avidly sought as replacement smokers, about the devastating health effects of smoking."

According to Judge Kessler the a group of tobacco companies met at the Plaza Hotel in New York City and devised a public relations strategy to counter health concerns connected with smoking. Even after U.S. Surgeon General's reports about dangers of smoking and linking smoking to lung cancer in 1964, tobacco companies continued "to falsely deny and distort the serious health effects of smoking."

During the process tobacco industry was caught with their hands in the cookie jar when on one hand they were claiming that it does not want children to smoke and on the other hand they were found tracking youth behavior and preferences. One could speculate that they were not there to inform the youth of serious dangers of smoking.

Under the ruling, the tobacco companies were ordered to stop using such descriptions as "low tar," "light," "ultra light," "mild," or "natural," or any other descriptions that might seem as if these cigarettes posed less of a health hazard or in any way were an attempt to downplay the dangers of smoking them. Tobacco companies were ordered to begin public campaigns to correct the damage they have caused over the years.