THE first mass action by ailing smokers in the US to reach court opened in Miami, Florida, in the second week of July. The tobacco industry is being sued for US $320 billion in compensation and damages. If successful, the action could cripple the US tobacco industry. Lawyers say that as many as 200,000 smokers in Florida are entitled to join the action if they believe cigarettes have damaged their health. The case has been brought by Howard Engel, a retired Miami family doctor who is crippled with emphysema (breathlessness and wheezing caused by the enlargement and partial amalgamation of the air sacs of the lungs). Engel has sought legal redress for his condition since 1994. He was too ill to attend much of the hearings in the opening days.

Many wheezing and gasping plain-tiffs were present in the courtroom as the case opened, some on wheelchairs and some needing oxygen masks to breathe. The public benches were packed with people who claim they are the victims of a deliberate campaign of deceit and manipulation by the Big Five tobacco companies. The plaintiffs included Frank Amodeo, 59, a former nightclub singer who has been unable to eat or drink for 11 years. Treatment for lung cancer requires him to survive on liquids through a tube into his stomach for the rest of his life. "If I had known in 1953 what I know now, I would never have taken a cigarette in my life," said Amodeo. "My case shows that smoking does not have to kill you to destroy your life. I live in a hell in which there is no escape but death. And I do not want to die. So where does that leave me?"

Attempts by smokers to bring joint cases (class actions suits) against the tobacco industry have always foundered at the pre-trial stage. The Florida case has reached a jury largely due to the tenacity of Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, a husband-and-wife legal team who have devoted their practice to the fight. The couple won a notable victory last year when they secured a US $583 million judgement on behalf of the cabin staff of an airline who claimed they had suffered the effects of passive smoking while flying.

The Miami case will be the first to hinge on claims that the cigarette makers deliberately concealed their own medical research showing that nicotine was addictive and that smoking could cause cancer and heart disease. It also alleges that the companies laced cigarettes with high doses of nicotine to hook smokers. The defendants will deny both these allegations. They will not contest that cigarettes can damage health, but argue that smoking is a matter of personal choice.