The myth of the underdog has a strong hold on the American imagination and the proponents of every cause fancy themselves as the brave Davids battling the mighty Goliaths. Smokers are the latest group who think they are being hard done by.

They pose as the little guys, just trying to exercise what they see as their right to fill the air with carcinogen-laden tobacco smoke. They insist that it's no-one else's business what they do in public, even though other people's throats and lungs also pay the price.

The surgeon general of the United States recently documented that terrible price. Quite apart from the damage smoking does to the smokers, the surgeon general found "indisputable" evidence that secondhand smoke is a major threat to others, killing an estimated 50,000 people each year.

Responsible government officials can't ignore this problem and, in October, Allegheny County joined the growing trend to tackle it head-on, passing an ordinance -- due to take effect Jan. 2 -- that will ban smoking in restaurants, taverns and social clubs with 10 or more employees.

Inevitably, a couple of establishments sued and, to the unwary, they may seem like sympathetic plaintiffs: Mitchell's Bar and Restaurant and the Smithfield Cafe, Downtown, where smokers have been welcome for years.

But, as it turns out, these redoubts of the common man have an uncommonly rich supporter: R.J. Reynolds. The Post-Gazette has been told that the huge tobacco company, which is based in Winston-Salem, N.C., is paying the legal bills for the restaurant owners.

There's nothing unusual about this. It is par for the course. In the Nov. 7 election in Ohio, R.J. Reynolds spent millions of dollars in unsuccessfully supporting Issue 4, a smokescreen referendum question that was meant to fool voters and sabotage a genuine anti-smoking initiative backed by the American Cancer Society among others.

It was further proof that Big Tobacco will stop at nothing to try to block legislation that sensibly limits the use of its noxious products in the interests of public health. When the lawsuit is heard in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court next week, the public needs to know that the sympathetic party is not the one backed by R.J. Reynolds.