New Cigarette Warning Labels

[whiteathlete33]

I think it's about time this aggressive approach is taken. Cigarettes are one of the true devils on planet earth.

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<h1 id="yn-title">Feds propose graphic cigarette warning labels</h1>
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<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Three-examples-proposed-warning-graphics-that-appear-cigarette-packaging-part/photo//101110/480/urn_publicid_ap_org435d7d6cd8ce44b58192730227c36e7e//s:/ap/20101110/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fda_tobacco_18" target="_blank">

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APâ€"Three examples of proposed warning graphics that will
appear on cigarette packaging as part of the government's"¦ </cite>


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<div ="byline">
<cite ="vcard">
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, AP Tobacco Writer Michael Felberbaum, Ap Tobacco Writer</span>
</cite>
â€"
<abbr title="2010-11-10T12:34:15-0800" ="recenttimedate">57minsago</abbr></div>





RICHMOND, Va. â€" Corpses, cancer patients and diseased
lungs are among the images the federal government plans for larger,
graphic warning labels that would take up half of each pack of
cigarettes sold in the United States.


Whether smokers addicted to nicotine will see them as a reason to quit remains a question.


The images are part of a new campaign announced by
the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human
Services on Wednesday to reduce tobacco </span>use</span></font>, which is responsible for about 443,000 deaths per year.


"Some very explicit, almost gruesome pictures may be
necessary," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in an interview with
The Associated Press. "This is a very, very serious public health issue,
with very, very serious medical consequences," such as cancer, heart
disease, strokes and lung diseases.




[Related: Bad news for U.S. smoking rates]





The share of Americans who smoke has fallen
dramatically since 1970, from nearly 40 percent to about 20 percent, but
the rate has stalled since about 2004. About 46 million adults in the
U.S. smoke cigarettes.


In the same period, the average cost per pack has
gone from 38 cents to $5.33. Much of those increases are from state and
federal taxes.


The new prevention plan is part of a law passed in
June 2009 that gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco, including
setting guidelines for marketing and labeling, banning certain products
and limiting nicotine. The law doesn't let the FDA </span>ban </span>nicotine </span>or </span>tobacco</span></font>.<div align="center">
Click image to see the proposed labels (Warning:graphic images)


<cite id="captionCite">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</cite>
</div>


The FDA is proposing 36 labels for public comment.
They include phrases like "Smoking can kill you" and "Cigarettes cause
cancer" and feature graphic images to convey the dangers of tobacco.


"It acts as a very public billboard because you all
of the sudden are reading something about lung cancer from that pack
behind the cash register, whereas before you were just reading
'Marlboro,'" said David Hammond, a health behavior researcher at the
University of Waterloo in Canada, who is working with the firm designing
the labels for the FDA.


Some of the labels include a man with a tracheotomy
smoking a cigarette, a cartoon of a mother blowing smoke in her baby's
face, rotting and diseased teeth and gums, as well as cigarettes being
flushed down the toilet to signify quitting.



[Report: Lung infections kill 4.25 million a year ]


The agency will select the final labels in June after
reviews of scientific literature, public comments and results from an
18,000-person study. Cigarette </span>makers</span></font> will then have a year and three months to start using the new labels.


The new warning labels are to take up the top half of
a pack â€" both front and back â€" of cigarettes and contain "color
graphics depicting the negative health consequences." Warning labels
also must constitute 20 percent of advertisements.


In recent years, more than 30 countries or
jurisdictions have introduced labels similar to those proposed by the
FDA. The U.S. first mandated the use of warning labels stating
"Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health" in 1965.


While it is impossible to say how many people quit
because of the labels, Hammond said every source of evidence suggests
that the labels do spur people to quit.


Canada introduced similar warning labels in 2000.
Since then, its smoking rates have declined from about 26 percent to
about 20 percent. How much the warnings contributed to the decline is
unclear because the country also implemented other tobacco control
efforts.


The labels should shock people and be effective in
deterring smokers, but how much is the question, said Marvin Goldberg,
the Bard professor of marketing at Pennsylvania State University.



"There's no silver bullet. Will this wipe out smoking? No, but it will put a dent in it," Goldberg said.



Graphic labels "are tremendously effective," said Stanton </span>Glantz</span></font>,
a tobacco researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.
He said the argument that the warning labels are offensive, so people
ignore them, has been cooked up by cigarette companies.



If that were true, the tobacco </span>industry</span></font> wouldn't be fighting them so hard, Glantz said.



Reynolds American Inc., parent company of the nation's second-largest
cigarette maker, R.J. Reynolds, is reviewing the labeling plan. But spokesman </span>David </span>Howard</span></font>
said the legality of the new labels is part of a pending federal
lawsuit filed by the company, No. 3 cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. and
others.



The tobacco makers in the suit had argued the warnings would relegate
the companies' brands to the bottom half of the cigarette packaging,
making them "difficult, if not impossible, to see."



Anti-tobacco advocates are applauding the federal campaign and the new warning labels.



"This is going to stop kids from starting to smoke ... and it's going to
give smokers a strong incentive to quit smoking," said Patrick
Reynolds, grandson of R.J. Reynolds and executive director of the
Foundation for a Smokefree America. Reynolds' father, brother and other
relatives died from smoking-related illnesses.



Smokers themselves were skeptical that the labels would have much effect.



"I don't think they're going to be a deterrent at all for people who
already smoke. Most people start smoking when they're young, and I don't
think they're going to think about the effects," said 27-year-old Zak
Hoffman of Cincinnati, who has been smoking since he was 14.



"I think more tax increases would have more of an effect than scare
tactics," said 20-year-old Gina Gatano, a student who works at a
downtown Cincinnati coffee shop.



___



AP Business Writer Dan Sewell in Cincinnati, AP Marketing Writer Emily
Fredrix in New York and AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago
contributed to this report.