States warned about potential Medical Malpractice Lawsuits for Smokers
Big tobacco may come under additional pressure by State health commissioners. Fifty state health commissioners have been notified via letter by public interest law professor John Banzhaf that medical malpractice lawsuits could be brought against physicians by smokers if they fail to follow federal and other guidelines in treating and warning smokers of the hazards of smoking. John Banzhaf, is known as the “driving force behind the lawsuits that have cost tobacco companies billions of dollars,” and the “law professor who masterminded litigation against the tobacco industry,” The warning is based upon a recent article in a medical journal and recent study about saving smoker lives. The health commissioners were told that physicians are killing more that 40,000 American smokers each year by failing to follow federal guidelines that requires they warn patients about the dangers of smoking and to provide effective medical treatment for those who want to quit. “The families of any one of those 40,000 victims - or the hundreds of thousands more who suffer heart attacks, strokes, amputations, blindness, or other problems because of their smoking - could sue physicians for malpractice for failing to follow the standard of medical care mandated by these guidelines,” says Banzhaf. The New York City Department of Health has already warned that “because physician intervention can be so effective, failure to provide optimal counseling and treatment is failure to meet the standard of care - and could be considered malpractice.” In a report sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the WellPoint Foundation, fewer than 30% of smoking patients receive even the minimal treatment required by the guidelines. Banzhaf's letter warned that: “Since many in the antismoking community (including hundreds of organizations, many with their own attorneys), as well as lawyers associated with antismoking groups and others in private practice, are now considering how to proceed with the article's litigation suggestion, the need to remind doctors of their responsibilities and of their potential legal liability is paramount - especially since their continued refusal to even warn many patients about smoking, much less to follow the guidelines' requirements of effective intervention, kills over 40,000 patients each year.”
