bnapl@burdvax.UUCP (Tom Albrecht) (12/03/85)
Washington (UPI) - The American Civil Liberties Union, today, filed a class
action lawsuit on behalf of American women and blacks against the major
cigarette manufacturers for what it calls "the clearest case of discrimination
in US history". Lawyers for the ACLU contend that the manufacturers are
conspiring with white American men to systematically reduce the incidence of
lung cancer among that group of tobacco users at the expense of minority and
other disadvantaged smokers.
The law suit follows on the heals of a report issued by the National Cancer
Institute showing that the lung cancer rate among white American men decreased
in 1983 over the rate of the previous year. During the same period, the
report says, the cancer rate among women and black men continued to rise.
A lawyer for the ACLU said the case could take on historic significance if
the courts should rule in their favor. "We want people to know we are serious
about this issue." Calling smoking a fundamental right, the lawyer went on
to say that the ACLU would work with the offending cigarette makers to
design campaigns to increase smoking among white American men. "We don't
want anyone in this country to be any better off than anyone else," the
lawyer went on to say. "If it means killing off more white men, so be it."
Eleanor Smeal, president of the National Organization for Women, called the
NCI report "scandalous". "We are outraged to learn that such inequality
exists in the lung cancer statistics," she said. Smeal went on to promise
that the NOW would take a more activist role in helping what she called
"enlightened American men to become interested in this important
issue of feminism and equality." She promised to spend as much as one
million NOW dollars to get the issue before the American people. Speaking
on behalf of blacks, the Rev. Jesse Jackson called the statistics proof of
"an American apartheid" and termed the R.J. Reynolds Co. the "P.W. Botha
of the US".
A spokesperson the tobacco industry was not available for comment.
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In a somewhat related item, insurance officials in Pennsylvania said that
automobile insurance rates for single women will need to be increased by as
much as 33% to comply with state a Supreme court ruling mandating unisex
insurance rates.
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