Pubdate: Wed, 25 Mar 1998
Source: The Herald, Everett, WA, USA
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com
Author: Associated Press

PROFESSOR GIVES HISTORY LESSON IN TOBACCO INDUSTRY VS MINNESOTA

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Tobacco companies on trial in Minnesota opened their
defense Tuesday by calling a history professor who said people have known
the health risks of tobacco for centuries.

In sometimes lighthearted testimony, Hyman Berman gave a history lesson
that touched on tobacco-related writings of King James I and John Quincy
Adams.

Berman was called by the tobacco industry to testify about what the people
of Minnesota and the state knew about the health hazards of smoking, when
they knew it and what they did about that knowledge.

The state and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota are suing the tobacco
industry for $1.77 billion they say they've spent treating smoking related
illnesses, plus punitive damages. The plaintiffs claim cigarette makers
knew about the health hazards of their product and covered them up while
conducting a marketing campaign to addict smokers to nicotine.

Before Berman took the stand, the plaintiffs rested their case
provisionally after eight weeks of testimony. They may re-open it later if
the Minnesota Supreme Court upholds lower-court rulings granting them
access to 39,000 confidential industry documents.

Berman, a University of Minnesota history professor since 1961, outlined
King James I of England's 1604 publication titled ``A Counterblast to
Tobacco,'' in which he said that ``tobacco is a custom loathsome to the
eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs.''

John Quincy Adams came next. Berman noted that Adams wrote a letter to a
person named S.H. Cox in 1845 in which he admitted that in his youth he was
``addicted to tobacco in two of its mysteries - smoking and chewing.''

But he went back even farther.

``It started with Christopher Columbus,'' Berman testified, noting that
Columbus came across tobacco on his second visit to the New World.

When lead plaintiffs attorney Michael Ciresi objected, saying history that
far back was irrelevant to the case, District Judge Kenneth Fitzpatrick
added a bit of levity, asking whether Ciresi was objecting to what Columbus
said.

``None of us Minnesotans would be here without him,'' Fitzpatrick said.

Berman, who gave a deposition in the case last October, is expected to go
deeply into Minnesota's history as a leader in the anti-tobacco movement
from 1860 until the present day during his testimony this week.