Tobacco.org

• Class action suit filed over menthol cigarettes 

What is being described as the world's first class action lawsuit on behalf of people who developed lung cancer from smoking menthol cigarettes has been initiated by Israel's leading anti-tobacco attorney, Amos Hausner, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

He is representing the family of a Rehovot mother of four who died of a tumor at age 47 after many years of smoking Dubek's Montana brand of cigarettes. He is also acting on behalf of an estimated 3,000 other menthol-cigarette smokers who developed cancer here during the past seven years. The statute of limitations on a manufacturer's responsibility for damage caused by its products runs out after seven years.

The Jerusalem lawyer is asking the Central District Court to recognize the case as a class action suit against Dubek - Israel's largest tobacco manufacturer - for NIS 3 billion. It will probably be several months before the court gives its response.

Research conducted by tobacco companies a decade or more ago to identify additives that increase tobacco addiction showed that menthol did the trick, and the companies made a special effort to market cigarettes with this additive.

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Smoke begins to clear in Gehl case 

Tel Aviv district court lifted the gag order this week on the ruling against tobacco trader Zerah Gehl. He had spent years trying to keep it under wraps - the reasons why are coming out.

A review of the ruling on Gehl's tax assessments for the period 1982-1985 clearly shows why the man made such an effort to conceal its contents: A reading of Pilpel's ruling paints Gehl as a man devoid of respectability; but moreover, it could, apparently, serve as the basis for additional legal action.

At first, Gehl's efforts to cover up the ruling were successful; in an unprecedented move, Pilpel upheld the former's request and imposed a gag order on portions of the verdict. But yesterday, following lengthy legal procedures, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Oded Mudrik decided to lift the gag, thereby facilitating another, and complete, review of Gehl's actions at the cigarette manufacturer, Dubek, in the 1980s. . .

The particulars revealed in the parts of the ruling published after the plea-bargain deal were astounding. The tax authorities charged that for each dollar Gehl had paid for the tobacco he had purchased for Dubek, he received $2.54 in return; in 1982, said the tax authorities, Gehl inflated prices by $1.76 million; in 1983, by $1.09 million; in 1984, by $2.16 million; and in 1985, by $1.68 million.

During the period in question, the tax authorities told the court, Gehl had charged Dubek a total of $6.69 million more than he had paid for the tobacco.

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