Tue, Jun 21, 2011
A lifeless body, a scarred mouth and a blackened lung were among the graphic images in a new set of cigarette warnings unveiled Tuesday by the US government to highlight the health risks of smoking.
The warnings will occupy the top 50 percent of the front and rear panels of cigarette packs sold in the United States and the top 20 percent of cigarette advertisements beginning in September 2012, the Food and Drug Administration announced.
The nine color images, which can be seen at fda.gov/cigarettewarnings, mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are "a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking," the agency added.
One of the images, which shows a man with his chest sewn up, bears the caption "Warning: Smoking can kill you." According to the FDA, smoking kills 1,200 people a day in the United States alone.
Another picture shows a close-up of a mouth filled with scattered, brown teeth and a lip with an open sore, warning: "Cigarettes cause cancer."
"We want kids to understand smoking is gross, not cool, and there is really nothing pretty about having mouth cancer," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at the White House in a briefing to unveil the warnings.
Smoking causes 90 percent of all lung cancer in men and 80 percent in women, and has been linked to several other cancers, the FDA said.
The new labels also seek to warn pregnant women and new parents of the dangers of smoking, with a drawn image showing a premature baby in a hospital incubator and a picture showing a real baby staring at a plume of smoke.
"This will be a dramatic change in what a cigarette package looks like, no doubt about it. These warning labels are very graphic. They are large," said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
"It will change the consumer response to a packet of cigarettes and frankly that is what we want," she said, adding that a pack-a-day smoker would see the warnings 7,000 times in a single year.
However, the tobacco industry has filed a lawsuit challenging the labels, saying they put undue restrictions on tobacco companies' right to free speech by confiscating too much of the packet space.
"Even on acute poisons (e.g., pesticides and toxic chemicals), the warnings are not of this size and character," said comments submitted to the FDA in January by RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and Commonwealth Brands, Inc.
"It is therefore quite clear that the intended function of the proposed 'warnings' is not to warn consumers about the risks from smoking, but to communicate a government message: 'Don't buy or use this product.'"
An RJ Reynolds spokesman told AFP the company had no further comment.
"Regarding our lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the FDA law, including graphic warnings, oral arguments are scheduled for July 27th in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeal (in Cincinnati)," spokesman David Howard said in an email.
The label changes came about following a June 2009 law, signed by President Barack Obama about five months after he took office, that gave the FDA the power to regulate manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products.
The nine images were picked from a group of 36 proposals issued several months ago, after health authorities analyzed results on their effectiveness from an 18,000-person study and took into account about 1,700 public comments, the FDA said.
Each warning label also contains a phone number to call for help in quitting.
Anti-smoking groups such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids hailed the announcement as "the most significant change in US cigarette warnings since they were first required in 1965."
"The large, graphic warnings will be impossible to miss and represent a dramatic advance over existing text warnings," the group said in a statement.
Currently, the standard warning on cigarette packs in the United States is found in small print along the side: "Surgeon General's warning: cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide."
About 20 percent of the US population smokes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Similar graphic warnings can be seen on cigarette packs from Brazil to Britain and beyond, showing vivid pictures of rotting teeth, throat cancer, premature babies and heart surgeons operating on clogged arteries.
A lifeless body, a scarred mouth and a blackened lung were among the graphic images in a new set of cigarette warnings unveiled Tuesday by the US government to highlight the health risks of smoking.
The warnings will occupy the top 50 percent of the front and rear panels of cigarette packs sold in the United States and the top 20 percent of cigarette advertisements beginning in September 2012, the Food and Drug Administration announced.
The nine color images, which can be seen at fda.gov/cigarettewarnings, mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are "a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking," the agency added.
One of the images, which shows a man with his chest sewn up, bears the caption "Warning: Smoking can kill you." According to the FDA, smoking kills 1,200 people a day in the United States alone.
Another picture shows a close-up of a mouth filled with scattered, brown teeth and a lip with an open sore, warning: "Cigarettes cause cancer."
"We want kids to understand smoking is gross, not cool, and there is really nothing pretty about having mouth cancer," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at the White House in a briefing to unveil the warnings.
Smoking causes 90 percent of all lung cancer in men and 80 percent in women, and has been linked to several other cancers, the FDA said.
The new labels also seek to warn pregnant women and new parents of the dangers of smoking, with a drawn image showing a premature baby in a hospital incubator and a picture showing a real baby staring at a plume of smoke.
"This will be a dramatic change in what a cigarette package looks like, no doubt about it. These warning labels are very graphic. They are large," said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
"It will change the consumer response to a packet of cigarettes and frankly that is what we want," she said, adding that a pack-a-day smoker would see the warnings 7,000 times in a single year.
However, the tobacco industry has filed a lawsuit challenging the labels, saying they put undue restrictions on tobacco companies' right to free speech by confiscating too much of the packet space.
"Even on acute poisons (e.g., pesticides and toxic chemicals), the warnings are not of this size and character," said comments submitted to the FDA in January by RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and Commonwealth Brands, Inc.
"It is therefore quite clear that the intended function of the proposed 'warnings' is not to warn consumers about the risks from smoking, but to communicate a government message: 'Don't buy or use this product.'"
An RJ Reynolds spokesman told AFP the company had no further comment.
"Regarding our lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the FDA law, including graphic warnings, oral arguments are scheduled for July 27th in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeal (in Cincinnati)," spokesman David Howard said in an email.
The label changes came about following a June 2009 law, signed by President Barack Obama about five months after he took office, that gave the FDA the power to regulate manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products.
The nine images were picked from a group of 36 proposals issued several months ago, after health authorities analyzed results on their effectiveness from an 18,000-person study and took into account about 1,700 public comments, the FDA said.
Each warning label also contains a phone number to call for help in quitting.
Anti-smoking groups such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids hailed the announcement as "the most significant change in US cigarette warnings since they were first required in 1965."
"The large, graphic warnings will be impossible to miss and represent a dramatic advance over existing text warnings," the group said in a statement.
Currently, the standard warning on cigarette packs in the United States is found in small print along the side: "Surgeon General's warning: cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide."
About 20 percent of the US population smokes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Similar graphic warnings can be seen on cigarette packs from Brazil to Britain and beyond, showing vivid pictures of rotting teeth, throat cancer, premature babies and heart surgeons operating on clogged arteries.
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