COSA Members are well aware that cancer can arise in a number of settings including conditions of employment or as a result of environmental factors. In many cases, early detection can prevent harm if appropriate regulatory action is taken. In some cases, the precise cause of the detected cancer cannot be established – as was the case with the ABC Toowong premises in Brisbane. In other cases, commercial interest in the pursuit of profit can distort the market and/or the regulatory regime - giving rise to a liability to compensate and/or prevent or reduce harm: the experience with asbestos is an example, as is the history of cancers caused by tobacco. This presentation takes tobacco as a model which may be applied in other contexts, especially where cancer risk has been the subject of conduct which has been misleading or deceptive.
It is well known that smoking is harmful. It’s less well known just how harmful tobacco smoke can be. The reality is that for five decades the tobacco industry worldwide covertly sought to blur the link between smoking and disease. This began with the response of major Western tobacco companies to the publication in 1950 of the first studies implicating smoking as a cause of lung cancer, through to their response to studies demonstrating the link with other cancers and disputing that secondhand smoke causes disease in non-smokers, whilst all the time denying that nicotine is addictive. The justification for liability in economic theory will be explored, as well as remedies designed to redress the consequences of this distortion through an Australian Tobacco Litigation Project designed to make tobacco companies – including parent companies in the US and UK – pay compensation and fund measures to prevent or reduce harm, including screening for early detection of tobacco caused disease and smoking cessation measures to unaddict smokers thereby radically reducing the demand for tobacco from licit or illicit sources. It also means government funds may be freed up to support the objectives of the 2926 COSA ASM theme - The precision generation: from prevention to personal care.