whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand indicating that Brown & Williamson chairman Thomas Sandefur lied to a congressional committee concerning his• views about the addictiveness of nicotine); Alix M. Freedman, To bacco Firm Shows Ho w Ammonia Sp urs Delivery of Nicotine, WALL ST. J., Oct. 18, 1995, at Al [hereinafter Freedman, Ammonia Sp urs Delivery] (discussing internal documents from Brown & Williamson on the addition of ammonia-based compounds to increase the potency of nicotine inhaled by smokers); Philip J. Hilts & Glenn Collins, Documents Disclose Philip Morris Studied Nicotine's Effect on Body, N.Y. TIMES, June 8, 1995, at 1 (discussing previously undisclosed research by Philip Morris into the pharmacological effects of nicotine). As for accounts of misconduct by the leading maker of silicone gel breast implants, see Philip J. Hilts, Maker of Implants Balked at Tes ting, Its Records Show, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 13, 1992, at Al (revealing that Dow Corning scientists pressed for further study of implants but that the corporation put off such tests for more than a decade); Philip J. Hilts, Strange History of Silicone Held Many Wa rning Signs, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 18, 1992, at 1 (discussing Dow Corning's disregard of early indications that silicone might affect the immune system). 3. See infra section II.Al. Although it remains far too early to tell with certainty, there are at least some preliminary indications that manufacturers of diet drugs used in combination under the popular name "fen-phen" may have been aware of the potential for the drugs to damage the heart valves of users.
Settlements of tort suits ordinarily do not make front-page headlines. Two recent efforts to effect class action settlements for workers exposed to asbestos products 1 and recipients of silicone gel breast implants 2 are hardly ordinary, however, just as asbestos and breast implants are not the subjects of ordinary tort suits. Instead, litigation over these products exemplifies the phenomenon of mass torts: it involves conduct alleged to be tortious and to affect large numbers of people by means qf a mass-marketed product-in particular, a product thought to give rise to recurring patterns of injury that may remain latent for years or even decades. 3 The notion that tort claims might be resolved through settlement agreements is not new. The recent settlement agreements,
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