Female lawyer battles giant cigarette makers Lawyer Bae Keum-ja speaks to reporters after losing a damage lawsuit against KT&G at the Seoul High Court in southern Seoul in February 2011. The appellate court ruled that there was no evidence that the nation’s biggest cigarette maker committed illegal activities. The case is still pending in the Supreme Court.                             / Korea Times photo by Won You-heon Establishing new legislation crucial for winning suits By Kim Jae-won What product kills 6 million people every year and is probably the most widely-consumed addictive drug in the world? Yes, the answer is cigarettes. Everyone knows how harmful smoking is for people and society; destroying lives and incurring huge medical costs to treat patients who suffer from smoking related diseases such as lung and throat cancers. However, many Koreans remained largely unaware of the dangers of smoking until the late 1990s when lawyer Bae Keum-ja made the issue a public concern by helping smokers and their family members file lawsuits against KT&G, the nation’s biggest cigarette manufacturer. After spending 14 years leading the legal campaigns, Bae is now advocating for a special antismoking law to be legislated in order to fight cigarette makers effectively. Previously she lost three damage claim lawsuits against KT&G at district and appellate courts. She is now waiting for a ruling on one case pending in the Supreme Court. “It is crucial to set up a special law to win against cigarette companies. It is not possible to defeat them under current laws,” said Bae in an interview with The Korea Times at her office in southern Seoul. A cigarette vending machine in an office of KT&G in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, in this February 2006 file photo. There was limited awareness of the harmful effects of cigarettes in Korea until the late 1990s when lawyer Bae Keum-ja raised the issue publicly and helped smokers and their relatives file damage suits against KT&G.                                                                / Korea Times file Bae cited the example of Canada where provincial governments have successfully won lawsuits against cigarette makers based on special laws established from the year 2000 to 2012. The veteran lawyer said that British Columbia led the way for getting compensation from tobacco companies by establishing a special law titled the Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act in 2000. Tobacco companies questioned the constitutionality of the act by filing a complaint with the Supreme Court of Canada, but the highest court unanimously upheld the province’s right to sue the tobacco industry and concluded that the act was constitutional in September 2005, according to Bae and the government of British Columbia. Bae drew attention again recently because the state-run National Health Insurance Service said last month that it considered filing a damage lawsuit against cigarette companies. Experts say the amount of damages for the suit is expected to reach up to a trillion won because the national insurance company pays out a few trillion won every year for medical costs related to smoking. Asked why she remains committed to pursuing lawsuits against tobacco companies, although there is little financial reward, she referred to her time studying at Harvard Law School in the late 1990s. “While I was studying at Harvard, lawsuits against tobacco companies were hot issues in the United States. I became interested in the matter, and decided to help smokers file similar suits back in my home country.” After returning to Seoul, she worked on behalf of smokers suffering from smoking related diseases, and helped them file two lawsuits against KT&G in 1999. Later in 2005, she represented another group of smokers who filed a third suit. Unfortunately, they lost all the lawsuits against the giant cigarette company because local courts did not acknowledge that tobacco companies were liable for causing health problems to smokers. However, she argues that tobacco companies should be held accountable for because they made cigarettes harmful and addictive. “Tobacco companies make cigarettes very harmful by putting toxic substances into them. The firms also make people addicted to cigarettes,” said the 52-year-old attorney. Bae says that her ultimate goal is to cause tobacco companies to shut down because cigarettes are the biggest enemy of human beings causing damage to the health of individuals and additional problems in society. In that sense, she says the antismoking movement is synonymous with human rights activism. “The antismoking movement is a key element of human rights activities. I cannot understand some human rights and feminist activists who still smoke. How can smokers who destroy their bodies and lives be human rights activists working to protect people?” In fact, she has led some important human rights lawsuits for the past years. She helped relatives of prostitutes who died in a fire in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province win damages against the state in 2001. She also represented a teaching assistant in a sexual harassment case brought against a professor at Seoul National University in 1993. It was the first such case in the country and contributed to raising awareness about the seriousness of sexual harassment here. Woo Hee-jeong, the teaching assistant, won her lawsuit in the Supreme Court in 1998. Bae said that she believes cigarettes will eventually be removed from society because evil cannot win over good. “I learned from history that evil cannot persist for a long time although it prospers for some time. That’s why I continue to battle against tobacco companies.” shosta@koreatimes.co.kr,