After deliberating for four days, a jury in Portland, Oregon, has ordered Philip Morris to pay more than $150m (£105m; 172m) to the family of Michelle Schwarz, a nurse who died of lung cancer in 1999, aged 53.

The award was made up of $118514.22 in actual damages, mostly medical costs; $50000 for pain and suffering; and $150m in punitive damages. Ms Schwarz, who had tried several times to stop since she took up smoking in the 1960s, switched from Benson and Hedges to Merita Philip Morris brand marketed as having lower tar and nicotinein the belief that the brand was less injurious. Lawrence Wobbrock, the lead lawyer for the four plaintiffshusband Dr Richard Schwarz, sons Michael and Paul, and Shirley Chuck, Michelle's mothersaid low tar cigarettes do not deliver what they promise, because smokers unconsciously inhale more deeply and smoke the cigarettes closer to the butt in order to get the nicotine they crave. But cigarette companies market them to people who want to stop smoking, Wobbrock said, undermining their resolve with false promises of less tar. In November 2001 the National Cancer Institute released a comprehensive study saying that popular low tar and so-called light cigarettes are worthless as a way to reduce health risks to smokers. In reaching their decision, jurors were asked a key question: "Did Philip Morris make representations that `low tar' cigarettes delivered less tar and nicotine to the smoker and were safer and healthier than regular cigarettes and an alternative to quitting smoking upon which Michelle Schwarz reasonably relied, and if so, were such false representations and reliance a cause of Michelle Schwarz's death?" Ten jurors answered yes and two answered no. For the plaintiff's case to prevail in a civil trial in Oregon, the plaintiff must get nine or more votes. The verdict was the first to find that a tobacco company marketed low tar cigarettes as a healthier alternative even though it knew they were just as bad as regular cigarettes. For about 35 years from 1960 cigarette manufacturers won nearly every trial by shifting attention from themselves to the foolishness of smokers, who persisted in their habits despite health warnings. Overall the cigarette companies have won more than three quarters of all the cases that have gone to verdict. But the industry's fortunes began to change in the mid-1990s, after reams of secret internal documents were produced showing that the companies had long known of the health hazards and addictiveness of their products. William Ohlemeyer, vice president and associate general counsel of Philip Morris, said the verdict would be appealed, a process that could take years.

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