Need an interesting program for your civic club or special-interest group? Tobacco Free Amarillo has a team of speakers ready to go, even on short notice.

• Speaker's Bureau members are prepared to give the following talks:
• The Tobacco Free Amarillo Program
• Smoking cessation information for health providers
• Smoking cessation for smokers
• The dangers of environmental tobacco smoke
• Parents and smoking
• Cancer of the mouth and lips from cigarettes and smokeless tobacco
• Tobacco and young people; a program for teenagers
• Smoking and pregnancy

Contact: Meg Williams at 353-4306 at the Tobacco Free Amarillo office to arrange a speech.

Blood Vessels Bounce Back Once Smokers Quit Quickly leads to reduced risk of heart trouble, study finds

Jury awards $5 million in Gainesville trial against R.J. Reynolds

(Original article) After seven hours of deliberation, an eight-member jury awarded $5 million in damages late Thursday night to Amanda Jean Hall in her suit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Any punitive damages against the tobacco company will be announced this morning, according to Judge Robert Roundtree.

The case brought by the widow of a Gainesville-area man against the tobacco corporation went to the jury late Thursday afternoon after 10 days of testimony.

A panel of eight jurors were asked to decide whether Arthur Lamar Hall was addicted to cigarettes containing nicotine and if that was the cause of his death from lung cancer in 1995.

Attorneys for the Hall family were asking for $15 million dollars in compensatory damages.

Also key to the case was the question of whether the tobacco company concealed or omitted information regarding the dangerous health effects of cigarettes.

Attorney Mark Avera, speaking for Hall's widow, Amanda Jean Hall, said that Mrs. Hall takes some responsibility for her husband's lifelong smoking habit.

He asked the jury to award her $15 million in damages, saying the award should be equal to the amount of pain and suffering she has gone through at the time of his death and in the 15 years since.

"I say there is no question that R.J. Reynolds should be held accountable for its poor choices," Avera said.

Speaking for the tobacco company, attorney Dennis Murphy said the case was indeed about choices but should focus on the personal choices made by Lamar Hall, who began smoking at 14 and continued for 38 years.

"Mr. Hall's death could not be proven to be caused by smoking," Murphy said in his closing statement, noting that Hall was aware of the risks, he could have quit smoking and nothing R.J. Reynolds did had any effect on his behavior.

He also suggested that Hall's lung cancer could be a result of the 30 years he spent working as a carpenter.

The evidence, Murphy contended, shows that Hall was 100 percent responsible for his actions, and the tobacco company had no such responsibility.

Hall died in 1995; his death certificate lists the cause of death as lung cancer.

The case is the first to be heard in North Central Florida after a landmark ruling by the Florida Supreme Court in 2006. The high court upheld a jury verdict finding tobacco companies liable for smoking-related injuries and deaths, but it said smokers and their family members must bring individual suits to prove that smoking harmed them.

In the class-action suit known as the Engle case, a jury awarded $145 billion in punitive damages against the tobacco industry. The Florida Supreme Court reversed that award but opened the door to individual suits such as Jean Hall's.

In closing, attorney Rod Smith said, "The defendents say this is about Mr. Hall, but it is R.J. Reynolds' conduct that has brought us to this courtroom today."

He asked the jury of eight to consider the value to be placed on Jean Hall's losing "the most valuable thing in her life - the love of her life - forever.

"Lamar Hall was the perfect victim of the biggest conspiracy you will ever hear about," Smith concluded, saying that tobacco companies had lied to American families for the past 50 years about the dangers of smoking and the risk of lung cancer.

Supreme Court upholds smoking ban

Kan. court rules Newton smoking ordinance applies to VFW, Legion

NEWTON —

The Kansas Supreme Court issued a decision Friday upholding Newton’s smoking ban.

The Whitesell-Finnel Post No. 971 Veterans of Foreign Wards and Wayne G. Austin American Legion Post No. 2, both of Newton, filed a lawsuit Dec. 20, 2007, against the city’s smoking ban.

The two fraternal organizations argued the law was unconstitutional under the Fourth and 14th amendments. They also alleged they should be exempt from the ordinance as private clubs.

The lower court issued a summary judgment in favor of the city, saying the ordinance did not violate the constitutional rights of the VFW or American Legion and their members. The lower court also ruled the lawsuit was preemptive in that neither organization had been cited under the ordinance.

The ordinance was passed on Nov. 13, 2007.

It banned smoking in all public places and all enclosed places of employment in Newton. The VFW’s lawsuit was filed by Gary Loyd on Dec. 20, 2007. Loyd was later taken off the case and the VFW and American Legion added.

The Supreme Court, in its decision Friday, said the ordinance did not violate the organizations’ members’ rights to due process under the 14th Amendment or the right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment as asserted by the VFW and American Legion.

“Plaintiffs’ argument is apparently based on the simplistic notion that a private organization with a private clubhouse has a constitutional right to privacy,” the court said in its judgment. ... “Upon the merits of the argument, the city pointed out that a right to privacy action requires the existence of a fundamental privacy interest and that no court, to date, had recognized the smoking of tobacco as a fundamental right.”

In summary, the court noted the city acknowledged some of the VFW and American Legion’s premises might not fall within the ordinance’s definitions of public places or public places of employment.

“However, as appellants themselves have related, a portion of their buildings are occasionally open to the public and operated by paid employees, i.e., would be covered by the ordinance,” the judgment said.

Don Typer, VFW commander, had not read the judgment as of Friday and said he did not want to comment until he had a chance to talk to the post’s attorney.

Bob Myers, city attorney was unable to be reached as of press time.