Greetings to all the delegates! This is Sasha Bhatnagar from India and it’s almost impossible to put in words, how strongly I feel against the use of tobacco. One aspect of this issue, is the surprising way in which courts in particular countries pay the families of smokers a fine amount of money and term it as a - ‘Punitive Damage’. It is extremely shocking for me to know this, because I think most of us believe, that smokers inflict the aftermath of their wrongdoings upon themselves. So here is a report I would like to share with all of you.       

A Florida jury has done a strange thing. It has freely acknowledged that a man who died after decades as
a chain smoker had the primary responsibility for his harmful habit. But in the same ruling, it has ordered tobacco company Philip Morris to pay the man’s widow the shocking sum of $8 million. The whole of  Florida was itself schocked.                                                                                     
We have great sympathy for smokers who become sick or die, even though they brought those tragic circumstances on themselves by smoking. But sympathy for a sick smoker or for his surviving relatives should not be the basis on which large amounts of damages are awarded in court.

The reality is, the dangers of smoking have been widely known by the public for many decades — even for centuries, judging from historical records. The Florida man who died, Stuart Hess, had smoked although he surely knew he was seriously endangering his health. The same is true of other smokers.