Contingencies (Federal Government's Lawsuit Narrative) (Details) (Federal Government's Lawsuit [Member], Health Care Cost Recovery Litigation [Member], USD $)	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012
Federal Government's Lawsuit [Member] | Health Care Cost Recovery Litigation [Member]
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Federal Government Original Complaint Date	1999
Loss contingency, period of occurrence	August 2006
Amount of alleged annual costs health care programs, minimum	$ 20,000,000,000
Amount of disgorgement of profits requested in Federal Government lawsuit	280,000,000,000
Government Proposed Final Judgement Date	June 2005
Proposed final judgment	14,000,000,000
Fund for five-year national smoking cessation program	10,000,000,000
Fund for ten-year public education and counter-marketing campaign	4,000,000,000
Document Repository Agreement date	December 2011
Loss contingency, amount of district court deposit	$ 3,100,000
Loss contingency installment period, years	5