A former casino dealer who was diagnosed in December 1995 with cancer of the throat, spine, lymph nodes and tongue sued the major American tobacco companies, claiming that they lied about the addictive nature of nicotine and the health risks associated with breathing secondhand tobacco smoke.  Murphy, who withdrew from a similar class-action suit filed three months earlier, alleges that he was exposed to secondhand smoke for many years in his occupation as a casino dealer and that the exposure has harmed his health.  See “Five Casino Dealers Sue Tobacco Industry,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 7, 1998, 2B.

Murphy v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al., U.S. Dist. (D. Nev. 1998).