A case which seeks cancer screening proposal for smokers is headed to trial. The class-action suit will finally be heard soon before the jury in a federal court in Boston.
Ripe for adjudication, the decade-old case indict cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris of knowingly manufacturing defectively designed products with carcinogens. Petitioners allege that they the company could have made their products safer, The New York Times reported.
Instead of claiming for monetary damages, the petitioners want the company to be compelled to pay highly detailed, three-dimensional chest scans that can detect early signs of lung cancer. According to The Horn News, these chest scans can detect early stages of lung cancer that are not usually detected in traditional X-rays.
The revived case will be deliberated in front of the jury in two stages: First, the jury will decide whether or not the alleged defective Marlboro cigarettes could have been made safer by the manufacturer. If the result is in the affirmative, the jury will deliberate if the smokers are entitled to receive medical tests and how these tests will be conducted.
The prosecution must prove that Philip Morris' Marlboro products had feasible alternative designs that has existed for decades. To help their cause, petitioners plan to call a former Philip Morris employee to testify.
On the other hand, defendant Philip Morris is expected to call experts in cigarette industry to counter the allegations by proving that since 1970s, the company has produced lower-tar and lower-nicotine cigarettes.
Northeastern University law professor Richard Daynard told AP that the suit has a better chance of succeeding than its predecessors. Recent findings suggest that the sophisticated screening requested by the plaintiffs can save lives.
"What's happened is you have better technology which captures the tumors at a much earlier stage where there's a very good chance that if you get them that the person ... is probably not going to die from it," Daynard said.
Since the suit has been filed in 2006, insurers begun to cover screenings for certain smokers. The revived class- action suit will be heard in federal court in Boston soon.
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