Cigarette firms deceive to protect profits, claims lawyer

A lawyer in a multimillion-dollar case against the US tobacco industry has said that cigarette makers deceive the public to protect profits.

Ed Westbrook, a lawyer for a trust representing asbestos workers, said the deception was to avoid blame for high lung cancer rates.

The trust is seeking up to $135m from RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson and other cigarette makers.

Mr Westbrook commented: "We're never going to know the full story, because the full story has been destroyed. But what we do know tells a very, very sad story."

The jury is not expected to begin deliberating until next week.

Westbrook said that cigarette makers have known since the 1960s that smoking and asbestos exposure form a "lethal synergy".

He said manufacturers conspired to hide the findings from smoking asbestos workers, who were five times more likely to get lung disease than the average smoker.

Defence attorney David Bernick said that the asbestos workers' trust was plagued by mismanagement and dwindling funds - not fraud by the tobacco industry.

He told the jury: "We never misled the trust. The trust knew all along about tobacco and synergy."

Since it was formed in 1987, the trust has distributed $1.4bn to sick workers who made claims against a bankrupt, one-time asbestos maker, Johns-Manville Corp. It is demanding that Big Tobacco "pay its fair share" of the liability.