South Korean smokers lose in first tobacco lawsuit

SEOUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) Seven South Korean heavy smokers who sued the country's biggest cigarette maker in a landmark trial after they developed cancer lost their drawn out case today.

The Seoul Central District Court said the plaintiffs had failed to prove that smoking was the sole and direct cause of their illnesses and that tobacco maker KT&G was not liable for misrepresenting the dangers of smoking.

The decision ended a seven-year court battle initiated by the family members of seven heavy smokers, of whom only three still survive.

''The court did not find that a causal relationship between lung cancer suffered by the smokers in the case and smoking was established even if a clinical causal effect between smoking and lung cancer is recognised,'' a summary of the ruling said.

Lung cancer, the court said, ''can develop from causes other than smoking and may occur in non-smokers''.

Kim Ih-ho, one of the plaintiffs and a relative of one of the cancer patients, told YTN TV after the verdict that fighting against a large tobacco maker was ''difficult and daunting.'' Bae Geum-ja, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the court had, in effect, thrown out a range of evidence that is widely accepted on the health effects of tobacco smoking.

The plaintiffs said they would appeal against the ruling.

KT&G welcomed the decision as ''wise'' and said the court justly based its ruling on the ''general risk'' of smoking to health, which it also recognised.

While there has been a decline, South Koreans are among the heaviest smokers in the world. Many men start smoking in their 20s during compulsory military service where cigarettes are sold at sharply subsidised prices.

The plaintiffs in the case had said the government encouraged them to smoke while serving in the military.

The number of South Korean men who smoke slipped below 50 per cent for the first time last year, mainly due to health campaigns and higher taxes on cigarettes, the health ministry said in a report last year.

REUTERS SP PM1520