Table 4.

Exculpating the industry by weaponising the smoker’s friends and family

Defence attorneys will often say:
	Defence	Plaintiff	FS	MWR	Example
relatives*	5342	2375	0.32	0.23	“When people told him that they wanted him to quit smoking, like his wife, for example, he told them to mind their own business. He told his daughter, ‘I’m grown.’”67
father/mother	1670	567	0.26	0.27	“He didn’t quit when his father … was diagnosed or died of lung cancer.”68
husband/wife	1614	895	0.37	0.39†	“His wife, the plaintiff in this case, and his daughters warned him over and over and over again.”69
brother/sister	705	216	0.24	0.32	“You heard from her brother and sister that smoking was forbidden when they were kids…”50
friend/s	755	317	0.30	0.31	“We heard from a couple of his co-workers and friends he enjoyed smoking.”70
common knowledge	72	10	0.13	0.43†	“All the plaintiffs’ experts admitted that the dangers and addictive nature of cigarettes were common knowledge.”71

P values <0.0001 for all FS and MWR score unless otherwise noted.

*Relatives include the terms wife, husband, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, sister/s, brother/s, daughter/s, son/s, granddaughter/s, grandson/s, uncle/s and aunt/s.

†P value <0.001.

FS, frequency score; MWR, Mann-Whitney Rho.