This full page advertisements appeared in several national newspapers starting today, due to a Federal Court order, from a long-delayed Federal Court case that found US Tobacco companies systematically lied about the health hazards of cigarette smoke for decades.
Smoking was and remains, a massive transfer of cost from the tobacco manufacturers to smokers and the society at large who pay the increased medical care costs caused by smoking. This is the classic externality.
Quoting:
A Federal Court has ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Philip Morris USA, Altria, and Lorillard to make this statement about the health effects of smoking.
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Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 Americans. Every day.
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More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol, combined.
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Smoking causes heart disease, emphysema, acute myeloid leukemia, and cancer of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, lung, stomach, kidney, bladder, and pancreas.
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Smoking also causes reduced fertility, low birth weight in newborns, and cancer of the cervix.
NYT, Sunday 11/26/17. P. 13.
