U.S. Smokeless Tobacco has agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a man who died of oral cancer in what the family's attorney says is the first wrongful death settlement from chewing tobacco.
Bobby Hill of Canton, NC, had chewed tobacco for 27 years before developing oral cancer in 2001, attorney Antonio Ponvert III told DrBicuspid.com. Hill's wife, Kelly, filed the lawsuit in 2005 after her husband died of cancer of the tongue in 2003. He was 42.
Hill was a minor when he began chewing the company's tobacco products at age 13 in 1974; warning labels weren't put on chewing tobacco products until 1987, Ponvert noted.
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, which makes several brands of chewing tobacco, including Copenhagen, Skoal, and Husky, was acquired by Altria (formerly known as Philip Morris) last year. Company representatives were not available for comment as of press time.
Other important factors in the case included a company marketing strategy that focused on promoting the products to children and intentionally manipulating nicotine levels, according to documents uncovered by Ponvert.
The company had a strategy of gradually increasing nicotine levels, with low levels in products targeting kids such as Skoal Bandits, which were made in fruit flavors like berry and peach, explained attorney Mark Gottlieb, director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, which monitors tobacco litigation. Copenhagen, the company's flagship product, contains much higher nicotine levels, he said.
The company probably preferred to settle the case instead of having such damning evidence come out in court, he told DrBicuspid.com. "Had this case gone to trial, it would undermine their current marketing strategy."
Policy reversal
The case is legally significant because Philip Morris historically has had a policy of not settling individual smoker tobacco cases, and the company only lost such cases after they went to trial, Ponvert said.
"It's groundbreaking and important because the smokeless tobacco industry has never settled a wrongful death case," he pointed out. "This case is legally interesting because it seems to violate their internal policy."
The company also may have wanted to settle the case because it is now petitioning the FDA for permission to market smokeless tobacco as a safe alternative to smoking tobacco, Ponvert said.
"Children and their parents should know that if you start using smokeless tobacco, you will become addicted to it, and you are increasing your chances of getting sick and dying," Ponvert said.
Medical experts say oral cancer takes a particularly gruesome toll, according to Ponvert. "They describe it as 'death by autopsy,' " he said. "Literally, your face, jaw, tongue, and cheeks fall off your face until you die."
Gottlieb believes it's the first case of its kind and predicted more lawsuits involving smokeless tobacco. "There are thousands of cases of oral cancer that are associated with smokeless tobacco use," he observed. "Hopefully, this will help victims and plaintiffs' attorneys become aware these may be very viable cases."
The settlement came as the tobacco industry tries to weaken proposed tougher warning labels on tobacco products slated to go into effect in 2011.
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