New cigarette warning labels show graphic effects of smoking

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 By

new cigarette warning labels follow euro example

The FDA is heading in the direction of European countries with new cigarette warning labels that bluntly depict the effects of smoking. Image: CC andybullock77/Flickr

Cigarette warning labels have been printed on packs of smokes for 25 years — and smokers generally ignore them. The Food and Drug Administration is proposing new, larger cigarette warning labels that use graphic shock tactics to discourage people from smoking. The new cigarette warning labels are a result of congressional legislation that granted the FDA authority to regulate tobacco as a drug.

New cigarette labels shock and awe

New cigarette warning labels that graphically depict the consequences of smoking have been submitted by the FDA for public comment at fda.gov. The FDA’s proposed cigarette warning labels cover half the surface area of the pack. Some of the labels use pictures illustrating the effects of smoking which include a man smoking from a tracheotomy tube in his throat, a woman smoking with a baby in her lap, a body lying in a morgue and a man wearing a t-shirt with the words “I quit.” More than 30 countries already require large graphic cigarette warning labels that include images of blackened teeth and cancerous mouths and organs.

FDA seeks public comment on cigarette warnings

The Food and Drug Administration, is gathering public comment on 36 proposed cigarette warning labels until Jan. 9. Nine cigarette warnings will be chosen by June 22. Cigarette companies won’t be allowed to sell smokes without the new warning labels after Oct. 22, 2012. In a statement, Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest cigarette manufacturer said it supported the the new warnings. However, Dr. Richard Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic, told the New York Times that cigarette makers can be expected to try diluting the message with creative packaging schemes.

Tobacco use statistics

Tobacco use causes 443,000 deaths in the U.S. every year and costs $96 billion, according to the federal government. More than 46 million adults and nearly 3.5 million teenagers smoke. Each day about 1,000 teenagers and children become regular smokers and 4,000 more try smoking for the first time.

Sources

New York Times

Washington Post

CNN

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  • Carol

    The U.S. government is behaving exactly like the Nazis, complete with Nazi pseudo-science based on lifestyle questionnaires, and mentally retarded, Nazi-style hate propaganda! The U.S. government is GUILTY of flagrant fraud for ignoring more than 60 studies, which show that human papillomaviruses cause at least a quarter of non-small cell lung cancers, and probably more.
    http://www.smokershistory.com/hpvlungc.htm

    The U.S. government systematically commits this same type of fraud with every disease it blames on tobacco, and ignores and conceals any other evidence which contradicts its health lies. The U.S. government has systematically lied to the American people for the last six decades. Every Surgeon General report is an act of fraud, too. The U.S. government has robbed its citizens of their liberties and stolen hundreds of billions of dollars of their money, all on the basis of these deliberate lies! The U.S. government is a criminal regime, waging a war of cultural genocide against the people! And the subhuman filth actually believe that, no matter what tyranny they inflict on us, we'll lick their boots and sing "God Bless America!" Our answer to them should be, "May you be exterminated from the earth!"

  • http://www.mindcheese.com Jay

    Two facts collide: The number of smokers in the US isn't decreasing fast enough, and the FDA is a bureaucracy.

  • Nicole

    Well, plainly I feel this whole anti smoking kick the world is on is getting a little ridiculous. Dont get me wrong, I know smoking is bad for your health. Studies upon studies show that fact, yet people still do it. Placing blatently graphic photos on a pack wont deture people from smoking. Personally, I feel all this energy needs to go to an anti alcohol fight. Smoking doesnt make families fall apart, men (or women) get violent with thier wives (or husbands) and children and generally distroy lives. Again, I of course know the health risks of smoking, I just feel the energy used here could be put to better use.

    • http://www.adworkz.com/ Franrose

      About 100,000 deaths a year are caused by alcohol abuse. That number, however, seems to fail in comparison with the number of deaths caused by tobacco use each year: 5.4 million. That's quite a staggering figure if you ask me, and that number is only expected to grow.