By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
After a 2007 landmark court decision that recognized the cause-and-effect relationship between smoking and cancer, anti-smoking crusaders have been rearranging their focus to address the additives contained in cigarettes. This time, a court is showing renewed interest in the issue amid a growing public awareness over the harmful effects of smoking.
The legal battle dates back to 1999 when a group of lung cancer patients and distraught families filed a damages suit against KT&G, Korea's largest tobacco company by sales volume.
It took the court eight years to reach the conclusion that smoking can cause lung cancer but denied a request for compensation, stating that it couldn't be ruled out that other factors besides smoking had caused their affliction.
Now, the families and victims, supported by a group of lawyers, are changing their tack, claiming that KT&G uses additives to make cigarettes more addictive, and therefore more difficult quit.
For the first time, the presiding judge in the appeal case visited the KT&G factory to conduct an on-site inspection.
There have been some overseas rulings made in favor of heavy smokers with lung cancer, but it has not been the case in Korea.
The first ruling, handed down back in January 2007, supported the tobacco maker, saying that the plaintiffs' allegation that smoking was solely to blame for their lung cancer was groundless.
At that time, Judge Cho Kyung-ran of the Seoul Central District Court admitted there was a correlation between smoking and the plaintiffs' illness, but dismissed their compensation claim, saying there is "no evidence" to prove that the lung and laryngeal cancers of the plaintiffs were directly caused by smoking.
But Bae Keum-ja, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, is now pointing to the additives as the cause for addiction.
"A cigarette contains hundreds of additives to get smokers addicted to smoking faster and make it harder to quit," the lawyer and renowned anti-smoking crusader Bae told The Korea Times. "In the first ruling, the court took cigarettes as a product made in conventional way - putting dried tobacco leaves on a piece of paper and rolling it up - and that those with a strong will can quit smoking. But it's not true at all."
Bae claims KT&G mixes "nearly 600 chemical additives" with tobacco leaves in order to get smokers addicted faster and make it harder to quit.
As part of efforts to back the allegation, Bae asked the judges presiding over the trial to inspect a KT&G plant in Daejeon.
Three judges of the Seoul High Court, representatives from both sides and reporters visited the plant last month. Presiding judge Sung Ki-moon said following the inspection it was helpful in deepening his understanding and knowledge about the cigarette making process.
KT&G admits a cigarette is made up of tobacco leaves and chemical additives, but refuted Bae's allegation, saying the unnatural substances have nothing to do with addiction.
Park Ghyo-sun, a lawyer for KT&G said, "It's true we use chemical additives. But they are only for better taste and flavor."
The lawyer for the lung cancer patients recently asked the court to issue an administrative order to make the list of chemical additives contained in KT&G cigarette public. But the company, which holds nearly 70 percent domestic market and export products to the United States and its neighboring countries, was reluctant to do so, calling it confidential information. Observers predict the second ruling will be made as early as next year.
According to the National Cancer Center, nearly 67,000 people died of cancer in 2007 alone. Of them, 12.1 percent were lung cancer patients.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
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