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Abstract Cigarettes manufactured by fewer than half a dozen domestic companies cause approximately 440,000 deaths and $155 billion in medical and lost productivity costs each year in the United States. Despite this toll, Congress has not authorized the United States Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarette design or marketing. Likewise, the Consumer Product Safety Commission cannot regulate cigarettes and the Federal Trade Commission has played a relatively passive role over the past two decades. Where legislative and regulatory approaches fail, courts have offered an alternative means of addressing the harm caused by cigarette manufacturers. Successful products liability lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers shift health and productivity costs of smoking from families and third-party payers back to cigarette companies, forcing increases in cigarette prices. Litigation thus has proven to be an effective public health strategy for reducing smoking. On September 22, 1999, the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") filed a lawsuit against the leading domestic cigarette manufacturers (collectively, "Defendants") in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. DOJ is seeking to stop the Defendants' alleged decades-long misrepresentations and other fraudulent conduct under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"). RICO authorizes DOJ to pursue criminal and civil sanctions against individuals and organizations that are engaged in a conspiracy involving certain federal felonies, including mail and wire fraud. DOJ is pursuing RICO's civil sanctions only in this lawsuit. This law synopsis provides an overview of the lawsuit and its possible outcomes, reviews the basic allegations against Defendants and their responses, reviews the remedies DOJ seeks, and covers important events during the litigation's pre-trial phase. The synopsis also summarizes the manner in which the trial will proceed, reports key testimony provided thus far, and outlines the impact of possible outcomes.

Tobacco control's unparalleled success comes partly from advocates broadening the focus of responsibility beyond the smoker to include industry and government. To learn how this might apply to other issues, we examined how early tobacco control events were framed in news, legislative testimony, and internal tobacco industry documents. Early debate about tobacco is stunning for its absence of the personal responsibility rhetoric prominent today, focused instead on the health harms from cigarettes. The accountability of government, rather than the industry or individual smokers, is mentioned often; solutions focused not on whether government had a responsibility to act, but on how to act. Tobacco lessons can guide advocates fighting the food and beverage industry, but must be reinterpreted in current political contexts.

Background: currently, there is an intensive debate about the regulation of the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in indoor places. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes toward e-cigarette use in indoor workplaces and selected public and private venues among the general population in Barcelona (Spain) in 2013-2014. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study of a representative sample of the population of Barcelona (n5736). The field work was conducted between May 2013 and February 2014. We computed the prevalence and the adjusted odds ratios(OR) derived from multivariable logistic regression models. Results: the awareness of e-cigarettes was 82.3%. Forty five percent of respondents did not agree with the use of e-cigarettes in public places and 52.3% in workplaces. The proportion of disapproval of the use of e-cigarettes in indoor places was higher at 71.5% for schools and 65.8% for hospitals and health care centers; while the prevalence of disapproval of e-cigarette use in homes and cars was lower (18.0% and 32.5%, respectively). Respondents who disagreed on the use of e-cigarettes in indoor workplaces were more likely to be older (OR51.64 and 1.97 for groups 45-64 and §65 years old, respectively), those with a high educational level (OR51.60), and never and former smokers (OR52.34 and 2.16, respectively). Increased scores in the Fagerstro¨m test for cigarette dependence were also related to increased support for their use. Conclusions: based on this population based study, half of the general population of Barcelona does not support the use of e-cigarettes in indoor workplaces and public places, with the percentage reaching 65% for use in schools, hospitals and health care centers. Consequently, there is good societal support in Spain for the politicians and legislators to promote policies restricting e-cigarettes use in workplaces and public places, including hospitality venues.