Re: “Destroyed documents: uncovering the science that Imperial Tobacco Canada sought to conceal.” 1 At the end of September, the Ontario government became the third province to file a claim against the tobacco companies to recover health care costs associated with smoking. Mere money will not bring back to life the million or so Canadians killed by tobacco, nor will it prevent hundreds of thousands of tobacco-caused deaths that will occur. Provincial litigators need to rethink their strategies. There are many health-related goals that could guide these lawsuits. They include a settlement that requires plain packaging of cigarettes, a reduced number of retail outlets and increased controls on the remaining ones and more support for smoking cessation programs. But these measures, important as they are, do not address the central problem: Tobacco companies continue to profit from a deadly product that will kill half its lifelong users. The most important service provincial litigators could render to all Canadians would be to demand that tobacco companies be obliged to fix this problem. It is time for litigators to ask the courts to require tobacco companies to phase out tobacco.
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For the full letter, go to: www.cmaj.ca/cgi/eletters/181/10/691#244361
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