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Jury Clears Tobacco Company in Trial 

After less than four hours of deliberations, the jury voted 11-1 in favor of R.J. Reynolds and American Tobacco, ending a three-week trial. . . Tobacco company attorneys said Gilboy knew the risks and chose to smoke. They also said he would have died whether he smoked or not because a scar on his lung caused his cancer -- not smoking, as the family contended.

They also noted that Gilboy was cancer-free when he died at 64.

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Smoke tests on animals said negative 

Cigarette smoke inhalation tests have not produced lung cancer in animals, said Richard D. Thomas, formerly with the National Academy of Sciences . . . Thomas said he took part in a study that connected beagles to smoking machines through tracheotomies . . After court, Thomas said that despite many statistical studies showing smokers run a lung cancer risk about 12 times greater than nonsmokers, he does not know if smoking causes lung cancer.

"I think it's a risk factor. I think it's a contributing factor. But certainly from a scientific factor, the answer has to be no," Thomas said.

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I think it's a risk factor. I think it's a contributing factor. But certainly from a scientific factor, the answer has to be no.
Richard D. Thomas, a scientist formerly with the National Academy of Sciences who testified for tobacco in the Gilboy trial, when asked after court if smoking causes lung cancer. Quoted in <i>Smoke tests on animals said negative</i>

Doctor testifies in tobacco trial man's cancer due to cigarettes 

Dr. Samuel Hammar, a pulmonary pathologist from Washington, testified that Robert Gilboy got lung cancer from smoking. But Gordon Smith, an attorney for the American Tobacco Co., told the jury the kind of cancer Gilboy had is usually related to drinking, radon, pollution or a fatty diet, all possible factors in Gilboy's life. . . And Gilboy continued smoking, even in the cancer ward after being diagnosed in 1986, Grossman said.

"He did that because it was his choice to smoke," he said. "This isn't the case of someone who couldn't stop smoking, but the case of somebody who didn't want to stop smoking."

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