In the Dallas Associated Press is a story that the company American Home Products knew that components in the Fen Phen diet drug they produced was causing serious health problems. Internal company memos from 1996 showed the company knew of illnesses and deaths from a rare lung disease linked to their product. At that same time a maker of one of the drugs lobbied the US Congress to ease restrictions on the use of several of the drugs components. At present the company is attempting to negociate a mammoth settlement with thousands of fen phen users to the tune of more than 3 billion dollars.