NEW YORK , June 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A U.S. federal jury on Friday ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pay 15 million dollars to a man whose legs were amputated due to a vascular condition he blamed on cigarettes, news agencies reported.

The company -- the second largest U.S. tobacco firm with cigarette brands like Winston and Camel -- immediately filed an appeal, saying the award was "excessive and unwarranted," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The case was filed by David Burton in the U.S. District Court in Kansas , for injuries he allegedly sustained from smoking between 1950 and 1993.

Burton claimed that his use of cigarettes caused him to develop peripheral vascular disease in 1993 -- a condition that led to his legs being amputated.

The outcome was the latest in a series of multi-million dollar punitive awards handed down to the U.S. tobacco industry.

The jury had previously awarded Burton 198,400 dollars in compensatory damages for medical expenses and lost income to date.

Daniel Donahue, senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Reynolds Tobacco, said there was no legitimate basis for awarding any punitive damages.

"As we showed during the trial, Reynolds Tobacco had no information about smoking and health that wasn't publicly known during the entire time that the plaintiff, Mr. David Burton, smoked," he said.

"Moreover," Donahue noted, "there is no evidence that links Mr. Burton's condition to any statements or actions by Reynolds Tobacco, nor was any evidence presented showing that our company profited from a failure to disclose any information to Mr. Burton or any other smoker.

In addition, he said even if a punitive damages award was justified, "an award this large would not be appropriate because it is 75 times as much as the compensatory award."

Both federal and Kansas state law require that punitive damages be proportionate to compensatory damages.

"We continue to believe that the Burton verdict should be overturned on appeal," the Reynolds official said.

On June 19, a Miami court ordered four tobacco companies to pay a former flight attendant 5.5 million dollars for the chronic sinusitis she contracted before smoking was banned on U.S. airlines.

Lynn French, 56, flew with Trans World Airways for 26 years and claimed that she inhaled enough passengers' smoke to cause chronic sinusitis.

Passengers were allowed to smoke on board during her first 14 years at TWA, until 1990. The six-person jury decided that was enough "passive smoke" to have caused her chronic sinusitis.

Tobacco companies Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson Tobacco and Lorillard were the liable parties.

"A huge victory," said lawyer Marvin Weinstein, whose law firm represents 500 other flight attendants with similar pending suits.

"It feels like justice has been done," French said. On June 11, a Miami court ordered four big tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, to pay a 76-year-old former smoker 37.5 million dollars in damages.

John Lukacs was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue, which was amputated a year ago, his attorney said. Lawyer Philip Gerson added that his client also suffers from bladder cancer and is not expected to live much longer.

The Islamic ruling on smoking is that it is haram (prohibited) for Muslims because of the hazards its poses for the person’s health and those around  him.  

In his book, “Halal and Haram in Islam,” prominent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qardawi, said that smoking is haram.

Prof. Su`aad Abdullah Saleh, head of Jurisprudence Department, Al- Azhar University said that: "Tobacco is haram because it causes a lot of harm. Accordingly, working in tobacco companies is haram for it assists in spreading and producing a haram thing.

Another Muslim scholar,  Mufti Ibrahim Desai, said: “It is a universally accepted that smoking has many serious health and life hazards amongst which is lung cancer. These hazards affect not only the smoker himself but those around him as well.

“Shari`ah has stressed the importance of being in good health to the extent that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, even advised Muslims in all ages to strike a balance in eating and drinking to evade any harmful effects on the health. He advised having dates, being hot in nature, with cucumber, as it (cucumber) has a cooling effect.

“It is clear that cigarettes contain many harmful ingredients, for example, carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar and benzene vapor.

“Lung cancer was a very rare disease but the end of this century witnessed a high rise in its occurrence, primarily in men and thereafter in women. In the beginning of the sixties, the death rate due to lung cancer increased highly. Smoking also yields other health hazards besides its general and specific economic harms.

“Smoking did not exist in the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, but our great religion of Islam has laid down general principles from which many laws are derived. From these principles, Muslim scholars have come to the conclusion that smoking is prohibited (Haram).

“In the Qur’an, we read: “be not cast by your own hands to ruin; and do good. Lo! Allah loveth the beneficent.” (Al-Baqarah:195). Smoking causes fatal sicknesses, for example, lung cancer, tuberculosis, etc.

“In another verse, Almighty Allah says: “And do not kill yourselves.” (An-Nisaa’: 29). The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said: “Whomsoever drinks poison, thereby killing himself, will sip this poison forever in the Hell-Fire.”

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