Nicaragua filed suit in Puerto Rico last month, seeking to recoup the cost of treating sick smokers, and Brazil has threatened to sue as well.

The tobacco industry has made extravagant claims over the years, but what topped them all was its claim that Congress had given it immunity from lawsuits by sick, dying or dead smokers and their families.

But continued uncertainties about outstanding lawsuits as well as the tobacco industry's proposed $368.5 billion national settlement to resolve litigation to treat sick smokers remains a burden on Philip Morris's stock price.

Can the sick smokers in Florida prove that they would have behaved differently had the industry behaved differently?

Analysts said the money could be used to help pay for settlements made with various states to reimburse them for their medical costs in the treatment of sick smokers.

Among the topics on the table are the size and shape of a fund to compensate sick smokers, the nature of restrictions on cigarette marketing and possible restraints on lawsuits against tobacco companies.

In the punitive stage of the trial, sick smokers first asked for $196 billion in damages.

Federal and state governments spend $50 billion treating dying and sick smokers.

Not only will full funding of antismoking programs assure that Americans live longer, but it will also reduce the cost to governments of treating sick smokers.

As we've seen, tobacco companies are paying for only about half the bill we taxpayers have to foot for sick smokers.