TORONTO - Ontario has become the latest jurisdiction to take aim at Big Tobacco's wallet, launching a lawsuit to recover smoking-related health costs from a beleaguered industry that denounced the action as hypocritical.

The suit, which seeks a jaw-dropping $50 billion from a dozen Canadian firms and their parent companies, follows enabling legislation the province passed earlier this year to the delight of anti-smoking groups.

"That is our view of the costs of health-care related illnesses directly tied to tobacco from 1955 until now," Attorney General Chris Bentley said of the damages claim.

"We believe that taxpayers should be compensated for the costs that they have paid."

The claim follows similar actions in British Columbia and New Brunswick, as well as in the United States and abroad.

Among those named in the suit is Canada's largest tobacco manufacturer, Imperial Tobacco Co., a wholly owned unit of British American Tobacco of London that sells cigarettes under such well-known brands as du Maurier and Player's.

Imperial spokesman Eric Gagnon said the suit came as no surprise given the legislation, but suggested the Ontario government was being hypocritical.

"They're collecting billions of dollars in taxes, and right now they are turning and suing the tobacco companies," Gagnon said from Montreal.

"This is a legal product and we do it in the way the government dictates us to do it."

Tobacco companies in Canada operate under increasingly stringent legislation that includes, for example, restrictions on the sale of cigarettes to minors, how products can be displayed in stores and bans on advertising.

The government also regulates other products, such as alcohol and casinos, which can pose significant health and safety risks, Gagnon noted.

"Are they going to sue those industries?" he said. "From our perspective this does not make any sense."

Bentley said he had no plans go after other industries. He also rejected a connection between tobacco taxes and the suit, arguing the cost of health care related to smoking "far exceeds" the amount collected in taxes.

Ontario collects about $1.1 billion in tobacco taxes out of a total of more than $7 billion levied by all governments in Canada.

The lawsuit makes numerous claims. Among other things, it alleges the companies have long known that cigarettes were addictive, and that active and passive smoking can cause diseases such as lung cancer, but did little to mitigate the risk.

It also accuses the companies of conspiring to mislead the public about the dangers, suppressing evidence of the risks, and failing to take proper care to stop adolescents from smoking.

The claims have not been proven in court.

The province says tobacco-related illnesses cost the health-care system more than $1.6 billion per year. Tobacco use accounts for the deaths of about 13,000 Ontario residents each year, or 36 deaths per day, and almost 500,000 hospital days annually.

Anti-smoking groups welcomed the lawsuit, but said any money the province might win should be earmarked for public health, and not go into general revenues.

"If litigation is used by government only to recover the costs of treating diseases but not used to establish ways of reducing tobacco-caused disease, justice will not be done," said Dr. Atul Kapur, president of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.

Bentley said he wasn't prepared to spend any money before he had it, adding the lawsuit could take years to play out.

Tobacco companies have been taking it on the chin around the world for years.

In the U.S., all 50 states have launched legal action to recover the costs of smoking-related illnesses. In 1998, the states agreed to a US$25 billion out-of-court settlement.

Last month, a Los Angeles jury recommended that Philip Morris USA pay US$13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer.

Earlier this summer, three Japanese took on Japan Tobacco Inc., half owned by the government, seeking US$320,000.

The Ontario government ruled out banning tobacco, arguing education and progressive restrictions on smoking were the smarter way to go.

Also named in the suit is the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council, an industry lobby group.

Other provinces are also expected to take legal action of their own against the industry.