Don't all tobacco products have those huge warning labels on them?

Today perhaps. But this case goes back to historic issues. An the judge has determined that the tobacco industry knew about the harmful effects and intentionally withheld that information.

Claiming a product is safe when you know it is poisonous should be a crime.

Don't know what you think this has to do with Bad personal choices.

Warning labels have been on cigarettes in the U.S. since the late 60s (almost 50 years!). In Canada they have been required since 1989 as far as I can tell and. At have been present earlier than that. So none of this "today perhaps" bs as though people are just now discovering that cigarettes are bad for you. It has been public knowledge for a long time that cigarettes are bad for you and increase the risk of cancer, especially lung cancer. So if you choose to smoke, that should be on you, not the company making the product.

"and. At" was supposed to be "and may"

This type of case sickens me, much like the idiots that spill coffee in their laps and sue the companies that sold them the coffee. Of course it is hot you moron, it is not designed to spill in your lap.

For decades, the tobacco companies knew that their customers were dying, and that nicotine was the addictive drug. That's not speculation, we have the documentation - internal reports and such. They manipulated nicotine levels to increase the addictiveness while claiming they were lowering the cancer-causing chemicals, while knowing that it wasn't anywhere near enough.

In other words - they knowingly produced a lethal product and did everything in their power to make sure that people would continue to get addicted. They also marketed to kids to get them addicted early, knowing that the teenage brain grabs onto addiction much faster than the adult brain.

They're now doing it in the third world since they can't do it here any more.

So yeah, the bastards knowingly killed people in their race for profits. They should be thrown in jail.

The tobacco companies went in front of Congress and said that they had no evidence that cigarettes were either addictive or dangerous. We now know, thanks to whistleblowers, that they had hard, irrefutable evidence that cigarettes were both addicting and dangerous, and they purposely made them more addicting to increase profits. Lying to Congress is a crime.

Their product has had warning labels for almost fifty years in the U.S. Anybody using more than fifty years ago is either dead at this point or dodged ill effects from smoking. This is a joke. People need to take responsibility for their own choices and actions. I know high cholesterol increases risk of heart disease for example. It's not the fault of the cattle industry or egg manufacturers that I continue to eat beef and eggs. That's on me.

And @Yaleunc - we already know that teenagers make bad choices. So did the tobacco companies. You clearly have never dealt with an addiction. Yes, it starts with bad choices - but once the addiction has you in its grip, it's not about bad choices anymore. The person does share blame - but the tobacco companies did this ON PURPOSE, and it has created a large social cost - both in human lives and financially. The cost in Medicare for smoking related illness is gigantic, not to mention the fact that we all pay MUCH higher premiums because of smoking. That's why there are no-smoking pools for health insurance - take out smoking and obesity, and suddenly health insurance would be affordable. But that's not how Insurance, or Medicare, work.

Beef and Eggs aren't addictive, they aren't manipulated to make them MORE addictive. Tobacco is. And the Beef and Egg lobby didn't buy off Congress so they could increase profits.

"I know high cholesterol increases risk of heart disease for example. It's not the fault of the cattle industry or egg manufacturers that I continue to eat beef and eggs."

FYI Correlation does not imply causation. In fact there is a growing body of evidence which says inflammation cause both increased cholesterol levels and increased risk of heart disease.

So not only do we not know this for a fact, or indeed whether inflammation is the correct answer.

The food and drink industry will come under increasing pressure. They have, over the past 50 years managed to increase consumption in the US - through advertising, products designed to be more addictive, and whatever other tools were available to them - to about three tomes the global average.

That means US citizens are on average three times the mass of the average human. With three times the associated water usage, and three times the associated calorie consumption.

Along with the medical concerns which you correctly raise.

But humans are machines shaped by their environment, and free will is a myth. An illusion. You are culpable only in that you allowed this to happen in your lifetime. By neutrally not opposing it. Something i endeavour to do in Europe. And another reason to oppose TTIP.