Medicine: Cancer & Cigarettes

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Can heavy cigarette smoking cause lung cancer? If so, are cigarette manufacturers liable for damages? In U.S. District Court in Miami last week, these questions went to a jury for the first time. The upshot: a Solomonic verdict in which both sides could claim victory.

Miami Contractor Edwin Montholeum Green began to cough up blood around Christmas 1955. On Feb. 1, 1956, he was diagnosed as having lung cancer, too far advanced to be removed by surgery. Green died early in 1958, soon after he had given a deposition to Lawrence V. Hastings, a physician and attorney.

Said Green: he had smoked Lucky Strikes for 25 to 30 years, usually two packs a day, but sometimes up to three packs. On suits against the American Tobacco Co. by Green's estate and his widow Mary, totaling $1,500,000. Judge Emett C. Choate charged the jury to answer a series of dependent questions:

1) Did Green have cancer originating in his left lung? The jurors' answer was yes. 2) Was this cancer the cause or one of the causes of his death? Yes again. 3) Was the smoking of Lucky Strikes a proximate, or one of the proximate, causes of the cancer? A third yes. 4) Could the American Tobacco Co.. on or before Feb. 1, 1956, "by the reasonable application of human skill and foresight, have known that users of Lucky Strike cigarettes, such as Green, would be endangered ... of contracting cancer of the lung?"

The jury concluded that the issue was still moot at the time, so it answered no. Result: Green's widow and estate were not entitled to damages.