Thu AM: Minton v. Samet on SIDS
October 2, 2004 10:13 pm by Gene BorioDefense lawyer Michael B. Minton (Lorillard) began to examine Samet on his position that maternal smoking is a cause of SIDS.
He introduced 2002 testimony from a Dr. Weissmann, wherein Weissmann said that right now, he couldn’t quite say maternal smoking causes SIDS–but he was close.
Minton asked the perennial question, “Can you say categorically that Weissmann’s opinion is unreasonable?”
Samet again showed his careful, deliberative, exacting methodology: “I don’t know. I don’t know the criteria he used, or how he reached his decision.”
Samet often failed to provide an answer that satisfied Minton, and there had been an objection just moments before over Minton’s attempts to get Samet to answer the same question over and over.
When Minton responded to Samet’s answer, “So you’d need to see Weissmann’s evidence and how he reached his decision before — ” Judge Kessler said, “I’m about to sustain the previous objection.”
Bernick then questioned Samet on the 2002 IARC study, and established that it concluded low-tar cigarettes reduced lung cancer risk.