• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.23-34
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• 2016

South Korea's state health insurer, the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), is in the process of a compensation suit against tobacco industry. The tobacco companies have habitually endeavored to ensure favorable outcomes in litigation by misusing scientific evidence or recruiting scientists to support its interests. This study analyzed strategies that tobacco companies have used during the NHIS litigation, which has been receiving world-wide attention. To understand the litigation strategies of tobacco companies, the present study reviewed the existing literature and carried out content analysis of petitions, preparatory documents, and supporting evidence submitted to the court by the NHIS and the tobacco companies during the suit. Tobacco companies misrepresented the World Health Organization (WHO) report's argument and misused scientific evidence, and removed the word "deadly" from the title of the citation. Tobacco companies submitted the research results of scientists who had worked as a consultant for the tobacco industry as evidence. Such litigation strategies employed by the tobacco companies internationally were applied similarly in Korean lawsuits. Results of tobacco litigation have a huge influence on tobacco control policies. For desirable outcomes of the suits, healthcare professionals need to pay a great deal of attention to the enormous volume of written opinions and supporting evidence that tobacco companies submit. They also need to face the fact that the companies engage in recruitment of scientists. Healthcare professionals should refuse to partner with tobacco industry, as recommended by Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.229-262
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• 2015

Toxic tort cases have increased dramatically since the 1970s, as large technological systems, such as nuclear power plants and chemical factories, or mass-produced, high-tech products, had exposed citizens and consumers to dangerous substances. It was, however, difficult to establish causal connection between exposure and the alleged harms in many of the environmental, pollution, and product liability cases under the framework of tort law conception of causation and responsibility. Science and law was called upon to resolve such 'late modern' legal cases where true causes are hard to find, where no single explanatory factor is sufficient for explaining diseases like cancer. This article examines how plaintiffs in the Korean tobacco litigation mobilized such late modern tools in science and law, such as epidemiology and the allocation of the burden of proof, in the context of the global circulation of science and law. It further shows how a set of the scientific theories and legal arguments developed in order to cope with late modern risk played a central role in establishing a causation between smoking and cancer in 2011. This article suggests that STS scholars can fruitfully examine the interaction between science and law as a way to understand and engage with social and legal issues engendered by late modern risk.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2010

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.214-256
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• 2001

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.80-96
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• 2016

Recently, a series of lawsuits were filed in Korea claiming tort liability against tobacco companies. The Supreme Court has already issued decisions in some cases, while others are still pending. The primary issue in these cases is whether the epidemiological evidence submitted by the plaintiffs clearly proves the causal relationship between smoking and disease as required by civil law. Proving causation is difficult in tobacco lawsuits because factors other than smoking are involved in the development of a disease, and also because of the lapse of time between smoking and the manifestation of the disease. The Supreme Court (Supreme Court Decision, 2011Da22092, April 10, 2014) has imposed some limitations on using epidemiological evidence to prove causation in tobacco lawsuits filed by smokers and their family members, but these limitations should be reconsidered. First, the Court stated that a disease can be categorized as specific or non-specific, and for each disease type, causation can be proven by different types of evidence. However, the concept of specific diseases is not compatible with multifactor theory, which is generally accepted in the field of public health. Second, when the epidemiological association between the disease and the risk factor is proven to be significant, imposing additional burdens of proof on the plaintiff may considerably limit the plaintiff's right to recovery, but the Court required the plaintiffs to provide additional information such as health condition and lifestyle. Third, the Supreme Court is not giving greater weight to the evidential value of epidemiological study results because the Court focuses on the fact that these studies were group-level, not individual-level. However, group-level studies could still offer valuable information about individual members of the group, e.g., probability of causation.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.133-173
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• 2011

Since mid-1960s the reports from the Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, and other health experts state that there is no risk-free level exposure to smoking and secondhand smoke. Tobacco smoke is made up of more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic, and at least 70 are carcinogens. The chemicals in tobacco smoke reach smoker's lungs quickly every time smoker inhale causing damages immediately. Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage smoker's DNA, which can lead to cancers. Smoking is responsible for more than 87% of lung cancers, but there are a host of other chronic diseases directly related to exposure to tobacco smoke. It's also a major cause of heart disease, stroke, aortic aneurysm, peripheral arterial disease and most of the other diseases. In the United States, each year with more than from 440,000 to 520,000 deaths caused by smoking and exposure to involuntary smoke. They conclude that smoking is the single most important source of preventable morbidity and mortality. The United States of America have about 60-year history of tobacco litigation. Tobacco litigation has been an important tool in tobacco control strategies aimed at limiting the activities of tobacco companies and providing redress to people who have become ill as a result of their use of tobacco products. Tobacco litigation is a kind of tort litigation. Quite often, as in the asbestos and other mass tort litigation episodes, tobacco litigation can play an educational role, warning the public about the magnitude of health risks that might otherwise be less clearly perceived. Tobacco litigation allows smokers, their families or other victims of smoking to sue tobacco companies in order to be compensated for the harm they have suffered. Potential benefits of tobacco litigation include compensation for smoking-related damages, strengthening regulatory activity, publicity, documents disclosure and changing tobacco industry behavior. And also tobacco litigation can limit the political activities of tobacco industry, protect human rights of smokers and non-smokers, increase burden to tobacco price-up and enhance the effects of law and politics in public health.

• The Inventors News
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• no.44
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• pp.1-16
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• 2006

한국여성발명협회,제7회 정기총회 개최/2006 대한민국 여성발명품 박람회/제12회 여성발명 우수사례 발표회/새롭게 바뀐 특허분류, 무엇이 달라졌나/해외 특허, 3월부터 무료로 검색 서비스/'디자인 등록증' 취업에 필수 요소 되다/전상우 특허청장 취임식 갖다/인라인 스케이트에도 특허 열풍/김종갑 전 특허청장, 산자부 제 1차관에 임명/공익변리사에게 무료 특허상담 받으세요/전상우 특허청장, 2006년 업무계획 발표/'제41회 발명의 날' 포상계획 공고/특허기술동향조사 확대/상표 불사용 취소심판 제도 개선/한국특허정보원, 한양대학교와 업무협약 체결/담배 상표, 다등록업체 1위KT&G/계절 관련 상표 출원, '봄'을 가장 선호/사회적 취약 계층, 심판.소송 비용 지원/국제문화대학원대학교,'국제 특허.경영학, 통해 전문가 과정 양성/'2006 대한민국 특허기술 이전박람회' 신청 접수/산업재산권분쟁조정 효력, '재판상 화해'로 강화/점차 늘고 있는 '유방암' 자가 진단법/'태국 발명가의 날 전시회' 한국발명진흥회 참가/'상표 판결문 요지집' 발간/역사 속의 발명품/하루 10분 발명교실/특허Q&A/'신뢰와 성실로 지식재산의 권리화를 돕겠습니다'/설봉초등학교 발명교실/아이디어 착상 및 발명 기법/사업화 지원 제도를 제대로 활용하려면/손님의 주문으로 만든 다니의 단팥죽/일본과 유럽, 브라질 디지털 방송 쟁탈전/미국, 도요타 흔들기 나섰다/새집증후군, 시스템 환기로 줄인다/공무원이 대나무로 분뇨 구린내 잡았다/획기적인 '기능성 목발' 탄생/발광 현수막, 눈에 띄네/리빙 아이디어/특허기술평가수수료 지원/한국여성발명협회 회원사 발명품 가이드