http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/lawsuit/battaglia.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1094508609561&call_pageid=968350130169&col=969483202845 http://tobacco.org/news/175359.html Joseph Battaglia met everything in life head on, his son says. And that is why the former tobacco salesperson wasn't afraid to face down Canada's largest tobacco company in hopes of proving the Matinee Extra Mild cigarettes he smoked for six years were secretly designed to prevent him from quitting. . . . Mr. Battaglia, 63, died Friday night after suffering a heart attack while he walked to a corner store near his apartment, his son Tony said. His suit against Imperial Tobacco Canada was the first of its kind in Canada, and not about money, his son said. . . . The case that catapulted Mr. Battaglia into prominence is still before the appeal courts, his son said. In 2001, a judge dismissed Mr. Battaglia's $6,000 small-claims suit, in which he claimed to have developed heart disease from smoking. Toronto Star Canada Tue, 07 Sep 2004 04:00:00 GMT http://www.newswire.ca/releases/June2001/05/c1447.html http://tobacco.org/news/67671.html Imperial Tobacco expressed satisfaction today that the Ontario Small Claims Court had rendered a decision to the effect that it was not liable for damages allegedly caused to Mr. Joseph Battaglia. . . Mme Justice Pamela Thompson, who presided the trial, rendered her decision from the bench today. Speaking on behalf of Imperial, Don McCarty, Vice-President, Law, said: "This decision confirms the validity of our key arguments in this case, namely that there is nothing about our products which prevented Mr. Battaglia from quitting smoking, as indeed he has done numerous times in the past, and that his heart condition pre-dated his smoking Imperial's products." Canada Newswire Canada Wed, 06 Jun 2001 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thestar.com/apps/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=975360316599&call_page=TS_Health&call_pageid=968867505381&call_pagepath=Entertainment,Life/Health http://tobacco.org/news/54335.html Imperial Tobacco Canada is trying to shift the blame to the federal government and smokers for its failure to warn them that mild cigarettes aren't necessarily safer, a court was told. ``If you are going to sell a product that causes disease . . . before someone lies in a hospital bed, sick, you have got to give them all the information,'' Doug Lennox, lawyer for Joseph Battaglia, said in closing statements. . . Lennox said Imperial Tobacco executives have testified that in the 1980s, they had a ``private epiphany'' that cigarette smoking could be harmful, but they did not share that revelation with consumers. Toronto Star Canada Wed, 29 Nov 2000 05:00:00 GMT http://www.thestar.com/apps/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=975360187249&call_page=TS_Health&call_pageid=968867505381&call_pagepath=Entertainment,Life/Health http://tobacco.org/news/54296.html A U.S. expert on substance abuse testifying for Imperial Tobacco Canada says cigarettes are not truly addictive and anyone can quit if they're motivated. The word addiction is no longer employed in a medical context because it's overused and applied in society to such behaviour as eating chocolates and watching bad movies, testified Dr. Harvey Hammer, chair of the department of psychiatry at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. ``The implication is the person has no choice, that a person has no free will,'' Hammer told a North York small claims court yesterday. . . Quitting smoking more like giving up caffeine than drugs, expert testifies Hammer, who confirmed he is being paid his usual rate of $7,500 (U.S.) a day over two days for attending and testifying, said the term substance dependency is preferable to addiction. People too often say ``I am addicted and I can't do anything about it and I find that frankly alarming. We are somehow suggesting that to people when we call it addiction,'' he said. . . Hammer testified all the patients he treats who are genuinely motivated to quit have been successful. He said people who want to recover from a substance dependency must start by saying, `` `I am responsible for my own behaviour.' That's a basic psychological concept.'' Toronto Star Canada Tue, 28 Nov 2000 05:00:00 GMT http://www.thestar.com/apps/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=974897671134&call_page=TS_Canada&call_pageid=968332188774&call_pagepath=News/Canada http://tobacco.org/news/54126.html British American Tobacco resisted efforts by its Canadian subsidiary, Imasco, to develop a safer cigarette in the 1980s, Imasco's former chief executive testified yesterday. Purdy Crawford said although the Imasco board was very keen to develop the safer cigarette, it was disappointed it wasn't able to convince its minority owner, British American Tobacco (BAT) of London, to lend its support and expertise to the project. Crawford told a North York small claims court yesterday that Jean Louis Mercier, then chief executive of Imasco-owned Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., ``was frustrated in dealing with his contemporaries at BAT.'' ``He was crestfallen, as I recall.'' . . Crawford told Battaglia's lawyer, Doug Lennox, that he didn't order anyone at Imperial Tobacco to inform Health Canada about research pointing to a possibly safer cigarette. As head of Imasco, he had no day-to-day control of the subsidiary and it wasn't his style to give it orders, he said. Toronto Star Canada Thu, 23 Nov 2000 05:00:00 GMT