In front of an audience of the sick and the dying, the first mass action by American smokers to reach court has opened in Florida. The tobacco industry is being sued for $A320billion in compensation and damages. The wheezing and gasps of many of the plaintiffs formed an emotive backdrop to the early days of the case last week. Several of those wheeled into the Miami courtroom needed oxygen masks to breathe, as the public benches overflowed with men and women who claim they are the victims of a deliberate campaign of deceit and manipulation by the Big Five tobacco companies.