Makers Acknowledge Smoking Dangers By CATHERINE WILSON, AP Business Writer MIAMI (AP) - Three of the five cigarette makers fighting the prospect of a potentially crippling punitive-damage award for smokers acknowledged to jurors Tuesday that smoking causes disease, exposing a rift within the industry. Attorneys for Brown & Williamson and Lorillard promised testimony from their CEOs that would for the first time place their companies on the same side of the issue as Liggett which accepted the connection between smoking and cancer three years ago. That leaves Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds on the other side of an issue that once united a monolithic industry. The splintered positions were offered in opening statements by tobacco attorneys trying to avoid a multibillion-dollar punitive verdict for 300,000 to 500,000 sick Florida smokers. The jury already has ruled against the industry twice, saying the companies conspired to produce a deadly product and awarding $12.7 million in compensatory damages to three smokers with cancer. The cigarette makers want the jury to award no punitive damages, arguing that $254 billion from settlements with the states is enough money to pay for decades of misconduct. The lawsuit seeks $100 billion in damages, but the smokers' attorney did not specify an amount in his opening statements Monday. On Tuesday, Lorillard attorney Ken Reilly told the jury: ``We agree with the public health authorities and the surgeon general that smoking causes disease. I don't know how more flatly that can be stated.'' Brown & Williamson attorney Gordon Smith followed by saying CEO Nicholas Brookes ``will tell you it is and has been Brown & Williamson's position that smoking causes cancer. There is no confusion about that whatsoever.'' Such blanket acknowledgments do not amount to acceptance of blame, however. If tobacco executives concede smoking causes disease, they generally say it can't be proven in any given smoker because of individual risk factors. The Reynolds position in the punitive phase was uncertain. Attorney Jim Johnson focused on company finances and did not address the issue of smoking and disease in his initial remarks. In a deposition May 10, Michael Szymanczyk, CEO of industry-leading Philip Morris, said the company has not adopted the position of public health officials that smoking causes cancer and is addictive even though it displays those messages on its Web site. Liggett owner Bennett LeBow broke ranks in 1997 by saying smoking causes disease and is addictive. ``Liggett's conduct has served as a model for how a tobacco company should conduct itself in today's world,'' said Liggett attorney Aaron Marks, predicting the company's cigarette business will die in 20 years.