Reward for 27 years of smoking

A California superior court ordered Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds to pay Whiteley, 40, and her husband $10 million each. Her lawyers said the warning labels on cigarette packages do not go far enough to warn people of the dangers of smoking. The same jury awarded the couple $1.7 million in compensatory damages last week after finding the companies deceived the public about the dangers of smoking.

Tobacco companies were required to put warning labels on cigarette packages in 1969. The Associated Press reported this case is believed to be the first one the tobacco industry has lost to someone who began smoking since then.

But the tobacco companies shouldn't be held responsible for what Whiteley did to her body. She lit the cigarettes. She held them to her lips and inhaled. She coughed incessantly.

Whiteley started smoking in 1972 when she was 13. Her reward comes after years of lighting Philip Morris' Marlboros and Reynolds' Camels. She quit in 1998, shortly before she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

She has the right idea - but if she wants to punish companies for the way they run their advertising campaigns and the way they market their products, she's going about it the wrong way.

Spokesmen for Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds said they will appeal the case, so Whiteley's legal battle to receive her settlement is far from over. As the saga continues, however, perhaps she could find a more effective use for the tobacco company money.

Perhaps she could donate the settlement money to the American Cancer Society and let the tobacco companies pay to research a disease they cause.

Maybe she could start a campaign to expose the innermost details of tobacco companies and how they manufacture cigarettes.

Or maybe she could create a program that aims to prevent teen-agers from smoking.

The money from the settlement will benefit two people. For the estimated 450,000 people who die from smoking-related illnesses each year, this lawsuit is just another chapter in the fight against Big Tobacco. Hundreds of thousands of people suffer the same symptoms Whiteley does, and thousands more start smoking as others stop. Her settlement has the power to work toward the greater good - she has the power to send a bold statement to tobacco companies, not just to her bank account.

No lawsuit settlement can cure a disease. But the people involved with the lawsuit have the power to help prevent them. Unless Whiteley puts her settlement to use, hundreds of thousands of smokers will continue to believe what tobacco companies advertise.