Tobacco.org

Biz Buzz: Where there's cigarette smoke, there's a firestorm of words  

Take the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which ruled last week in a wrongful death suit filed by Brenda Haglund, whose husband died of lung cancer six years ago. The court reviewed her case after a lower court rejected her claim that a tobacco company should have warned her husband about the dangers of smoking.

The high court also ruled against her, stating both parties "agree that cigarette smoking is inherently dangerous and that there is no such thing as a safe cigarette," according to a report by Merrill Lynch analyst Christine Farkas. "Because no cigarette can be safely used for its ordinary purpose, smoking, there can be no nonunreasonable use of cigarettes."

The opinion caused Farkas to rule on the court's grammatical gambit.

"If the word nonunreasonable broadly means reasonable (given the double negative) the court is suggesting that because all cigarettes are unsafe, they cannot be reasonably used -- even if consumers have been informed of the hazards," Farkas wrote.

No double jeopardy in this case.

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