Letter to the Editor on Philip Morris 

. . . (that the SF Chronicle and LA Times may not ever publish) John Jonik* 5oct02

To The Editor L.A. Times

Although "Philip Morris Ordered to Pay $28 Billion to Smoker" (9/5/02), no one expects this amount to be paid. Imagine if similar amounts were paid just to kin of the 400,000 annually, in the U.S. alone, said to have died from "smoking-related" illnesses. There probably isn't enough money in the world just for that, let alone addressing still-living sick smokers.

The puzzling thing is, why didn't Philip Morris defend itself by pointing out just one thing...that its products are contaminated by any of many hundreds of untested, often toxic and cancer-causing non-tobacco ingredients, including some of the world's worst industrial substances, and that this is perfectly legal, having been permitted by government regulators for almost three-quarters of a century?

Government officials allowed cigarette makers to keep these substances Top-Secret from not only consumers (and their liability lawyers) but from public officials themselves. Government officials failed to even demand that cigarettes contain any tobacco at all but, instead, fake tobacco made, in U.S. Patented processes (many from Philip Morris), from all sorts of industrial waste cellulose, usually chlorine-contaminated.

Government officials themselves declared dioxin (sent to smokers via "legal" chlorine contaminants in cigs) a Known Human Carcinogen. Also, this administration signed a global treaty to phase out dioxins because they are so deadly. In spite of this, no laws have been created to keep this cancer-causing substance out of cigarettes! It's still legal.

Cigarette makers, as homicidal as they are, were acting within the laws. They were given carte blanche to defraud and secretly poison millions of people who were told, and are still told, they were just smoking tobacco, a natural risk people accepted.

Philip Morris ought at least ask that complicit government officials, tobacco pesticide manufacturers, fertilizer suppliers, ingredient suppliers and advertisers (that lied about typical cigarettes being tobacco) chip in to pay the penalty. In any case, since Philip Morris is partly-owned by top insurance firms (as per SEC information), it may be well-insured against any negative rulings. Insurance customers will pay the damages.

John Jonik is an avid supporter of taking toxic chemical additives out of tobacco. 
He is a cartoonist in Philadelphia.