The head of one of the world's biggest tobacco firms has admitted to a Scottish court that there is no such thing as a safe cigarette.

Imperial Tobacco's CEO, Gareth Davies, has been giving evidence in a damages case brought by Margaret McTear, of Beith in Ayrshire. Mrs McTear claims the company failed to warn her husband Alf, who died of lung cancer in 1993 at the age of 48, of the dangers of smoking cigarettes. She is seeking damages of £500,000 in the first case of its kind to be heard in the UK. Mr Davies, who is on a salary of £1m per year, admitted to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, that smokers were far more likely to develop serious diseases such as lung cancer. But he insisted his statement did not mean that smoking caused lung cancer. Mr McTear, who smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day, began legal proceedings against Imperial Tobacco after he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1992. In court on Tuesday, Colin McEachran QC, for Mrs McTear, asked Mr Davis if he agreed, in the face of overwhelming medical consensus, that smoking caused lung cancer. Mr Davis said: "I think it is fair to say that we believe that smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, such as lung cancer, than non-smokers and we would agree there is no safe cigarette." Mr McEachran countered: "Does this mean that smoking causes lung cancer?" Statistics Mr Davis, himself a smoker since the age of 15, said: "No, it does not mean that." Mr Davis was bombarded with statistics linking cigarettes to disease, including a claim they cause the death of 120,000 Britons a year. He said: "Statistics have shown a relationship between smoking and certain diseases, including lung cancer, and I think scientists would agree that statistical association does not in itself establish a cause and effect. Mr Davis said the company's position on whether smoking caused lung cancer was that it did not know. The court heard that Imperial's position on the health risks of smoking had changed little over the past four decades. Asked whether the company's stance was adopted to "avoid litigation", Mr Davis said: "No, it is not." Mr Davis was asked to respond to the suggestion that if tobacco were introduced to the country today, it would not be legalised. He said: "I don't know. It is a very hypothetical point. I couldn't say I agree or disagree." The case, before Lord Nimmo Smith, is expected to continue into next year.

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