Milberger Sharon, Davis Ronald M, Douglas Clifford E, Beasley John K, Burns David, Houston Thomas, Shopland Donald
Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, Henry Ford Health System, One Ford Place, 5C, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
Tob Control. 2006 Dec;15 Suppl 4(Suppl 4):iv17-26. doi: 10.1136/tc.2006.016956.
In the late 1990s and the early part of this decade, the major US cigarette manufacturers admitted, to varying degrees, that smoking causes cancer and other diseases.
To examine how tobacco manufacturers have defended themselves against charges that their products caused cancer in plaintiffs in 34 personal injury lawsuits, all but one of which were litigated between the years 1986 and 2003.
Defence opening and closing statements, trial testimony, and depositions for these cases were obtained from the Tobacco Deposition and Trial Testimony Archive (http://tobaccodocuments.org/datta/). All available defence-related transcripts from these cases were reviewed and a content analysis was conducted to identify common themes in the defendants' arguments.
After review of the transcripts, defendants' arguments were grouped into seven categories: (1) there is no scientific proof that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer; (2) the plaintiff did not have lung cancer as claimed; (3) the plaintiff had a type of lung cancer not associated with cigarette smoking; (4) the plaintiff had cancer that may have been associated with cigarette smoking or smokeless tobacco use, but tobacco products were not to blame in this particular case; (5) the plaintiff had cancer that may have been associated with cigarette smoking, but the defendant's cigarette brands were not to blame; (6) the defendant's cigarettes (or smokeless tobacco) may have played a role in the plaintiff's illness/death, but other risk factors were present that negate or mitigate the defendant's responsibility; and (7) the defendant's cigarettes may have been a factor in the plaintiff's illness/death, but the plaintiff knew of the health risks and exercised free will in choosing to smoke and declining to quit. Use of the argument that smoking is not a proven cause of lung cancer declined in frequency during and after the period when tobacco companies began to publicly admit that smoking causes disease. Corresponding increases occurred over time in the use of other arguments (namely, presence of other risk factors and "free will").
Despite the vast body of literature showing that cigarette smoking causes cancer, and despite tobacco companies' recent admissions that smoking causes cancer, defendants used numerous arguments in these cases to deny that their products had caused cancer in plaintiffs. The cigarette companies, through their public admissions and courtroom arguments, seem to be saying, "Yes, smoking causes lung cancer, but not in people who sue us".
在20世纪90年代末和本十年初，美国主要卷烟制造商不同程度地承认吸烟会导致癌症和其他疾病。
研究烟草制造商如何为自己辩护，以应对在34起人身伤害诉讼中关于其产品导致原告患癌的指控，其中除一起外，其余所有案件均在1986年至2003年期间进行了诉讼。
从烟草 depositions 和审判证词档案库（http://tobaccodocuments.org/datta/）获取这些案件的辩护开场和结案陈词、庭审证词及庭外证词。对这些案件中所有可用的与辩护相关的文字记录进行审查，并进行内容分析，以确定被告论点中的共同主题。
在审查文字记录后，被告的论点分为七类：（1）没有科学证据证明吸烟会导致肺癌；（2）原告并未如所称患有肺癌；（3）原告患的肺癌类型与吸烟无关；（4）原告患的癌症可能与吸烟或使用无烟烟草有关，但在该特定案件中烟草产品不应承担责任；（5）原告患的癌症可能与吸烟有关，但被告的卷烟品牌不应承担责任；（6）被告的卷烟（或无烟烟草）可能在原告的疾病/死亡中起了作用，但存在其他风险因素，从而否定或减轻了被告的责任；（7）被告的卷烟可能是原告疾病/死亡的一个因素，但原告知晓健康风险且在选择吸烟和拒绝戒烟方面行使了自由意志。在烟草公司开始公开承认吸烟会导致疾病期间及之后，声称吸烟不是肺癌已证实病因的论点使用频率下降。随着时间推移，其他论点（即存在其他风险因素和“自由意志”）的使用相应增加。
尽管大量文献表明吸烟会导致癌症，尽管烟草公司最近承认吸烟会导致癌症，但在这些案件中，被告使用了众多论点来否认其产品导致原告患癌。卷烟公司通过其公开承认和法庭论点，似乎在说：“是的，吸烟会导致肺癌，但起诉我们的人不会患癌”。
