A giant British tobacco company is to take the unprecedented step this week of denying there is a proven causal link between smoking and lung cancer in the first case against a cigarette firm to go to a UK court.
The unique defense, to be heard in Scotland's Court of Session, denies decades of scientific proof of such a link, which was accepted by the British Government in 1957.
Imperial Tobacco is being sued for £500,000 (US$835,000) by Margaret McTear, whose husband, Alf, a 60-a-day smoker from Beith near Glasgow, died of lung cancer in 1993. The case, which starts tomorrow, will be scrutinized across Europe by lawyers who want to bring similar actions against tobacco firms.
Margaret McTear's lawyers will call scientist Sir Richard Doll, 91, as an expert witness. It was Doll whose work in the 1950s is credited with establishing the link.
Yet Imperial says in documents filed into court: "Cigarette smoking has not been scientifically established as a cause of lung cancer. The cause or causes of lung cancer are unknown."
The company will argue that studies, such as those carried out by Doll, "report a statistical association between cigarette smoking," not complete proof. The studies "also report cancer to be statistically associated with other actors. These include race, ethnicity, religion, sex, personality, low socio-economic status, occupation, diet and education ... It is not known which, if any, of these plays a role in the causation of lung cancer."
Cameron Fyfe, McTear's solicitor, said: "I'm amazed. Many of the tobacco companies have accepted the causal link but Imperial continues to refute it."
Fyfe said Doll's decision to give evidence "strengthens our case enormously."
The case hinges on the fact that Alf McTear started smoking Imperial's John Players brand in 1964, seven years before packets had to carry a government health warning. His lawyers argue this meant he was unaware of the risks he was running. Despite denying the link, Imperial will produce press articles and broadcast transcripts to show there were significant concerns about the effects of tobacco throughout the 1960s which should have made McTear aware of the dangers. It has produced such newspaper headlines as, "Cigarette tar causes cancer," and "Million deaths from lung cancer by end of century."
It will even invoke a treatise written in 1604 by King James I who said smoking was "loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmful to the braine [and] dangerous to the lungs."
Many experts predicted the McTear case would never reach court. The smoker launched it just before he died, and gave evidence on his deathbed without which it would have been lost.
"Alf was in a bad way. He could hardly breathe, but he insisted he wanted to get his evidence out to give us a feel for how difficult his life had become," Fyfe said.
The case has faced attempts by Imperial to stop it, and around 17 adjournments which held it up. At one stage the company demanded that Margaret McTear pay £2 million to the court to cover potential costs, a move rejected by a judge.
Alex Parsons, an Imperial spokesman, insisted it has always been keen to get to court.
"We believe this case is speculative and that our legal defense is robust," he said.
Margaret McTear said whatever the outcome, the hearing would highlight the links between ill health and smoking.
"I'm fighting for the young people, to try and get through to them the dangers of smoking," she said.
McTear, 58, a deputy manager with Help the Aged, faces financial ruin if she loses. Imperial could try to recover the costs of the hearing, and it recently served her with an order preventing her from selling her home.
Getting to court will keep a promise she made to Alf before he died.
"I gave him an understanding I would continue it, and my family will continue if anything happens to me," she said.
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