Punishing Tobacco Industry Misconduct: The Case for Exceeding a Single Digit Ratio Between Punitive and Compensatory Damages

This article addresses large punitive damages awards that juries have granted to plaintiffs in recent cases against the tobacco industry, and demonstrates why such high awards are a warranted and necessary incentive for the companies to change their dangerous course of conduct. In State Farm v. Campbell, the United States Supreme Court announced that “few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages” will be constitutional. In a subsequent smoking and health case brought against Philip Morris, however, a state appeals court allowed a punitive damages award that was almost 97 times the compensatory damages award. This decision was based on a finding that Philip Morris’s conduct was particularly reprehensible. Furthermore, internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the industry knowingly has used its enormous wealth to make it exceedingly difficult for potential plaintiffs to find lawyers, and nearly impossible for those that do to maintain their cases. The industry thus has been able to evade large judgments against it and to maintain its “refuse to settle” policy. This article, therefore, proposes that when a smoking and health plaintiff is successful at trial, the tobacco industry should be subject to a high punitive damages award because: 1) the industry’s behavior is particularly reprehensible; 2) the industry has used its wealth to engage in litigation tactics that have allowed it to evade capture; and 3) a powerful financial sanction is needed to deter lethal misbehavior when the defendant makes billions of dollars addicting consumers to its deadly product

Identifying work ability promoting factors for home care aides and assistant nurses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In workplace health promotion, all potential resources needs to be taken into consideration, not only factors relating to the absence of injury and the physical health of the workers, but also psychological aspects. A dynamic balance between the resources of the individual employees and the demands of work is an important prerequisite. In the home care services, there is a noticeable trend towards increased psychosocial strain on employees at work. There are a high frequency of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and injuries, and a low prevalence of sustainable work ability. The aim of this research was to identify factors promoting work ability and self-efficacy in care aides and assistant nurses within home care services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study is based on cross-sectional data collected in a municipality in northern Sweden. Care aides (n = 58) and assistant nurses (n = 79) replied to a self-administered questionnaire (response rate 46%). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to assess the influence of several independent variables on self-efficacy (model 1) and work ability (model 2) for care aides and assistant nurses separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Perceptions of personal safety, self-efficacy and musculoskeletal wellbeing contributed to work ability for assistant nurses (R²adj of 0.36, <it>p </it>< 0.001), while for care aides, the safety climate, seniority and age contributed to work ability (R²adj of 0.29, <it>p </it>= 0.001). Self-efficacy was associated with the safety climate and the physical demands of the job in both professions (R²adj of 0.24, <it>p </it>= 0.003 for care aides), and also by sex and age for the assistant nurses (R²adj of 0.31, <it>p </it>< 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The intermediate factors contributed differently to work ability in the two professions. Self-efficacy, personal safety and musculoskeletal wellbeing were important for the assistant nurses, while the work ability of the care aides was associated with the safety climate, but also with the non-changeable factors age and seniority. All these factors are important to acknowledge in practice and in further research. Proactive workplace interventions need to focus on potentially modifiable factors such as self-efficacy, safety climate, physical job demands and musculoskeletal wellbeing.</p

International Public Health Law:Not so Much WHO as Why, and Not Enough WHO and Why Not?

To state the obvious, "health matters", but health (or its equitable enjoyment) is neither simple nor easy. Public health in particular, which encompasses a broad collection of complex and multidisciplinary activities which are critical to the wellbeing and security of individuals, populations and nations, is a difficult milieu to master effectively. In fact, despite the vital importance of public health, there is a relative dearth of ethico-legal norms tailored for, and directed at, the public health sector, particularly at the international level. This is a state of affairs which is no longer tenable in the global environment. This article argues that public health promotion is a moral duty, and that international actors are key stakeholders upon whom this duty falls. In particular, the World Health Organization bears a heavy responsibility in this regard. The article claims that better health can and must be better promoted through a more robust interpretation of the WHO's role, arguing that neither the WHO nor international law have yet played their necessary part in promoting health for all

INFLUENCE OF SOIL DENSITY ON LEAF WATER POTENTIAL OF CORN

Corn plants were grown in growth rooms at 1.2 and 1.4 g cm−3 soil bulk density. Leaf water potentials (LWP) of paired plants of similar leaf area were monitored during 3-day drying cycles. With denser soil, LWP declined more rapidly during light, and increased more slowly during dark intervals because of restricted root growth. </jats:p

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG HYBRID MATURITY, ENVIRONMENT, DRY MATTER YIELD AND MOISTURE CONTENT OF WHOLE-PLANT CORN

Seven field experiments were conducted in 1975 and 1976 to investigate, under Ontario conditions, the influence of environment and hybrid maturity-by-environment interactions on (1) percent whole-plant and grain moisture at the time of maximization of whole-plant dry matter (DM) yield, and (2) the degree of coincidence of the dates of attainment of maximum whole-plant and grain DM yields. Each experiment involved three hybrids of each of three maturity classes which were harvested periodically during the maturation period. Quadratic regression equations were computed between whole-plant DM yield, percent whole-plant moisture, percent grain moisture, and days after July 31, and from these, estimates were made of maximum yields, dates of attainment of these maxima, and of percent whole-plant and grain DM on these dates of maximization. With the exception of one experiment which was affected by drought stress, whole-plant DM yield tended to increase with seasonal corn heat unit (CHU) accumulation (i.e., CHU from planting to first frost) across the seven experiments, and with increases in the CHU-maturity rating of the various hybrids. Percent whole-plant moisture at which forage DM maximized decreased as seasonal CHU accumulation increased and ranged from 58 to 69%. Percent grain moisture on date of maximization of whole-plant DM was affected by both seasonal CHU accumulation and hybrid maturity rating, and ranged from 25% for low-CHU hybrids in a high-CHU environment to 52% for the converse. Percent whole-plant moisture relative to percent grain moisture on date of attainment of maximum forage DM decreased at a rate of about 1% for each 100 CHU increase in hybrid maturity rating. Because of the large uncertainty in prediction of dates of attainment of maximum whole-plant versus grain DM yield, we were unable to answer with confidence the question as to whether the temporal difference between the two varied with seasonal CHU accumulation or hybrid maturity rating.Key words: Zea mays, forage, yield, moisture content </jats:p