Jump to full article: Burlington (VT) Free Press, 2008-08-27
Author: Sam Hemingway * Free Press Staff Writer
Intro: A lawsuit challenging claims by tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds that its Eclipse cigarette is healthier to smoke than the average cigarette can go forward, a Vermont judge has ruled.
Chittenden Superior Court Judge Dennis Pearson, in an 18-page ruling, denied R.J. Reynolds' request to dismiss outright the case filed by the Vermont Attorney General's Office on behalf of Vermont and 35 other states.
"The state is generally entitled to present its case on the evidence ... with regard to the existence (or not) of reasonable substantiation supporting R.J Reynolds's health claims regarding Eclipse," Pearson wrote in his Aug. 19 decision.
Pearson also rejected all but one of nine other pre-trial motions filed by R.J. Reynolds regarding what evidence and witnesses could be used at the trial, scheduled to begin Oct. 5.
Jump to full article »
Quotes from this article:
This case is novel because no one has ever said how much scientific evidence is needed to prove a reduced risk to human health.
VT assistant attorney general Julie Brill, on the state's challenge to RJR's Eclipse ad claims.
|