In November 1998, the nation’s largest tobacco companies agreed to pay $208 billion to the states over a period of 25 years. This settlement was the culmination of years of so-called “tobacco wars” in which more than 40 states sued the tobacco industry in order to recoup the health care costs of treating people with lung cancer and other smoking-related illnesses. The tobacco settlement has left many people wondering whether manufacturers of other potentially harmful products, such as alcohol, guns, and fatty foods, should also be held accountable for the health problems such products cause.

The states claimed that the tobacco companies had helped cause smoker’s illnesses and therefore were responsible for the cost of treating them. In the past, tobacco companies had traditionally won such lawsuits, arguing that smokers know the potential health risks of smoking...