Large-scale tobacco company Phillip Morris USA, Inc. was ordered to pay over $27 million to a woman after it was shown that a 50 year conspiracy contributed to the woman's development of a serious lung disease.

Woman Suffers 35 Year Smoking Habit

In 1958, the woman began smoking cigarettes. By the age of 16, she was smoking at least a pack a day. She claimed that based on advertising, she was unaware that cigarettes were designed to be addictive or that cigarette companies had an agenda when they targeted teenagers with their product.

As she got older, she followed Phillip Morris's marketing scheme by smoking filter cigarettes when those were advertised as safer, then low tar cigarettes, and then switched to light cigarettes for the same reason. She said she was unaware that making these changes had no health benefits. After a 35 year smoking habit, the woman developed severe chronic pulmonary disease.

Trial to Hold Phillip Morris Accountable

The trial provided evidence that nearly 90% of habitual cigarette smokers started as teenagers, and Phillip Morris targeted this demographic in order to build a lifetime consumer. In the trial, it was shown that Phillip Morris had referred to teenagers as "tomorrow's regular customer," showing that the company targeted youth.

As popular opinion towards cigarettes changed, Phillip Morris changed marketing strategies by promoting filtered and light cigarettes as the healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes. The company had data proving that there were no positive effects from smoking a light or filtered cigarette, and that some consumers would smoke more of them by believing they were safer.

Phillip Morris argued that the woman's smoking or continuation to do so could not be blamed on the tobacco company. They further argued that the company had put federally mandated health warnings on all cigarettes they manufactured for most of the time the woman had been smoking. By including these labels on the cigarettes, the woman was not mislead to believe there were no negative health consequences.

Phillip Morris is expected to be involved in 700,000 personal injury cases related to the negative ramifications of smoking. They have already doled out over $500 million in person injury settlements since 2006.