The lawsuit seeks to recoup money that taxpayers and Blue Cross spent treating 90,000 smokers. Statistics experts spent months developing a complex model to estimate how much has been spent on health care for smokers suffering from emphysema, heart disease, lung cancer and other smoking-related illnesses. Most of the details about the model remain a secret, apparently to be revealed after the trial begins. Tobacco industry lawyers, while denouncing the model, have disclosed a few details. Those figures, along with other statistics in the model, are in dispute.
Jurors can expect days of testimony about statistical models.
And the damage estimates could turn out to be quite different. What jurors won't hear is any mention that cigarettes save society money because smokers die earlier than nonsmokers, reducing nursing home costs. Even if Minnesota lawyers can prove wrongdoing by the tobacco industry, it should be liable only for the cost of treating smokers deceived into smoking by the industry's alleged misconduct, the industry contends. The past draws scrutiny On many days, this trial may seem like a history symposium. One major issue is whether the tobacco industry kept a promise it made in 1954 about conducting smoking and health research.