BLACK GROUP SUES TOBACCO COMPANY OVER MENTHOL CIGARETTES

Law: The race was targeted in the marketing of the more dangerous form of
smoke,lawyers say.

Philadelphia - The tobacco industry has been hit with a lawsuit accusing it
of violating the civil rights of blacks by specifically trying to sell them
menthol cigarettes.

The lawsuit - filed in federal court Monday - claims menthol cigarettes are
more dangerous than other types. The lawyers who filed the proposed class
action said it is the first lawsuit brought against the tobacco industry
under federal civil rights law rather than personal-injury or
product-liability laws.

Plaintiffs include several black smokers and former smokers of menthol
cigarettes, and two black health groups. They demand that the industry make
public all research about the effects of smoking, especially of menthol
cigarettes, on blacks. They also want menthol tobacco banned.

The lawsuit contends that menthol compounds, when burned, create additional
toxic substances that make such cigarettes more dangerous. Government
studies of smoking have suggested that menthol taste makes it easier for
people to smoke longer and inhale more deeply, the lawsuit claims.

The case is based on the original Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1870, passed
to prevent the victimization of former slaves during Reconstruction. The act
"has been amended and used in school desegregation and police beating cases,
but if you go back to the original act, this is what it was intended to
prevent: targeting black people in ways that take advantage of them,"
plaintiffs' attorney Stephen Sheller said.

"I think it is both a novel and promising legal tactic," said John F.
Banzhaf 111, a George Washington University law professor who is executive
director of Action on Smoking and Health.

Philip Morris Inc. had no comment on the allegations, saying company
attorneys had not yet seen the lawsuit.

Although blacks account for about 10 percent of all U.S. smokers, the suit
says they make up 60 percent to 70 percent of the menthol cigarette
consumers. Fifty-five percent of blacks used one of three menthol brands -
Newport, Kool, and Salem, according to a 1998 surgeon general's report.

Rev. Jesse W. Brown Jr., a Lutheran pastor and lead plaintiff, said: "In
surveys we have done of billboards and store-window posters in the black
community, upwards of 75 percent were for mentholated products."

Checked-by: Don Beck