FDA to Require New, Graphic Cigarette Health Warning Labels

by Anne Landman — November 10, 2010 - 3:16pm
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New cigarette warning labelThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration has unveiled hard-hitting, graphic new cigarette warning labels that will be required on cigarette packs after October 22, 2012. The labels show corpses, a man smoking through a tracheostomy, pictures of diseased lungs, a bedridden man suffering from end-stage cancer, rotten teeth, a man in the throes of a heart attack, a woman blowing smoke in a baby's face and similar depictions meant to show the actual physical effects of smoking. The graphics will be accompanied by stronger messages about the health effects of smoking, including "WARNING: Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers," "WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive," "WARNING: Cigarettes cause cancer," and "WARNING: Smoking can kill you." The labels will be required to take up half the cigarette pack. The FDA has made the 36 potential warning labels (pdf) public and is seeking public comment to choose the nine that will adorn tobacco packs. Similar labels are already in use in many foreign countries. The new, more graphic labels are a requirement of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act signed by President Obama in June, 2009, which for the first time allows the FDA to exert some regulation over tobacco.

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Time, November 10, 2010

Comments

Looking forward to it.

Submitted by Mutternich on November 12, 2010 - 8:46am.
The labels show corpses, a man smoking through a tracheostomy, pictures of diseased lungs, a bedridden man suffering from end-stage cancer, rotten teeth, a man in the throes of a heart attack, a woman blowing smoke in a baby's face and similar depictions meant to show the actual physical effects of smoking.
Hey, I want to collect the entire series! :-) Do you think they'd bring out a bubblegum brand with those pictures for people who don't smoke?

cig pictures

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 10, 2010 - 11:36pm.
I am a smoker, but this is great!!! To be totally fair to the public I want pictures of the car crash that happened today on all cars, what about boats, planes, atv's, horses, subways, cruise ships, boats, etc. Lets show graphic pictures of people dying in those vehicles---no more riding in those. How about tornadoes, earthquakes, floods etc, I want etchings on every rock in every creek, every tree, etc. How about food allergies, I want a picture on every peanut and product, strawberries, chocolate, etc. I want a picture on every drug ever made ( the legal kinds and illegal). I want a picture on every spider, bug, snake etc that causes an allergy or death. I want a picture of a death on every pc of sports equipment that has ever caused a death. Did you know that there are tons of germs on money?? I want each pc of money to carry a label. Do you watch tv?? Every surface in our home can carry germs that can of course cause death to the weak!!! Please God, tattoo a warning on small pre-school and school age children cause they carry all kinds of crap from lice to the deadly flu!! Let us please label everything in the world that I can think of!! Please label all alcohol, guns, knives, bad guys, bad girls, sexual perverts, pedophiles, bad dogs, bears, bulls, all poison berries and thing like poison ivy. WE don't profile in the U.S. , why pick one product???? It is a choice allowed because it is LEGAL!!!! Why not worry about Meth, Coke and all of the ILLEGAL crap ??? Oh my opinon, cause they are unable to do the job they were hired to do, so pick on something totally legal!! Amerca left the country. Where did you go????

welll...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on April 3, 2012 - 11:03pm.

Just because tobacco is legal doesn't mean it should be. It is your choice but so is it someone's choice to smoke pot but that doesn't even cause cancer. America left a long time ago and politicians are totally focusing the money on all of the wrong things ill give you that. It is just frustrating that there isn't real choice in the America we live in. I said that it should be illegal because some of the things that classify something as should be illegal is that it is severely detrimental to someones health or well-being. Unfortunately as a smoker, you may be giving in to all the shit that tobacco companies want you to believe and buy and you are funding that jackass next to you in the Porsche while you may having a hard time paying your mortgage...that's how i think about it.

Cigarettes are known to be

Submitted by Anne Landman on November 11, 2010 - 4:44pm.
Cigarettes are known to be defective products that are both addictive and deadly. That means, when used as intended, they kill people (unlike cars, strawberries, peanuts, cruise ship and the other items you mentioned). It does not currently say anywhere on the pack that cigarette are addictive, yet cigarettes have been subjected to at least five decades of R&D to make them so. Cigarettes kill more people each year than DUIs, heroin, cocaine, AIDS and fire combined. Anne Landman

food can be addictive

Submitted by Chazten Reynolds (not verified) on December 11, 2010 - 9:55am.

food can be addictive too.

should we put naked obese men on the packaging of your potato chips?

the irony here is that obama himself smokes. do you think he's going to give two thoughts about buying his next pack of cigarettes if their are warnings and pictures plastered all over it?

waste o' time.

All Products Intended For Human Consumption

Submitted by John H. (not verified) on December 23, 2010 - 8:27am.

Any product intended for human consumption should be regulated; especially if research shows that the product is harmful to human health.

The difference between food and cigarettes is food is necessary for human survival while tobacco is not. Potato Chips are not bioengineered to be some of the most addictive substances on earth; while cigarettes are. Tobacco companies have probably spent billions of dollars over the last 55 years on this pursuit alone. That is how they get customers for life. Tobacco companies are some of the biggest and most successful corporations in America.

Furthermore, secondhand potato chips kill or injure no one. While secondhand smoke kills and injures more people annually than all alcohol
related auto accidents in the United States. I have been diagnosed with lung cancer and heart disease recently even though I have never smoked in my life. My downstairs neighbors of 9 years however have a pack a day habit (at least). I wish it was legal to harm or kill them in some way as they have me. I am not a mean or vindictive person, but their addiction and complete disregard for others has literally destroyed my life.

I might further add that our government is largely responsible for this, by making alchohol and cigarettes legal and Marijuana illegal. If Marijuana had been legal all these years, there would likely be many fewer (addicted) tobacco smokers out there. Furthermore there would be not only a cure for cancer (and other diseases), but likely a much lower
prevalence of cancer and other diseases. Our government, and the corporations and rich individuals who lobbyed (bribed) congress, are directly responsible for the needless death and suffering of millions of Americans.