WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is ordering tobacco companies to publish corrective statements that say they lied about the dangers of smoking and to disclose smoking's health effects, including the death of 1,200 people a day.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler had already said she wanted the industry to pay for corrective statements in various types of advertisements. But Tuesday's ruling is the first time she's laid out what the statements will say.
Each corrective ad is to be prefaced by a statement that a federal court had concluded that the defendant tobacco companies "deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking." Among the required statements are that secondhand smoke kills more than 3,000 Americans a year.
Tobacco companies R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris USA had no immediate comment.
