Different Colored Cigarette Packs, Same Deadly Diseases

New (left) and old (right) packages of Marlboro LightsThe landmark tobacco legislation President Obama signed last year banned tobacco companies from using descriptors like "light," "ultralight," "low tar" and "mild" on cigarette labels starting June 22. An FDA guidance document points out that when tobacco companies introduced "light" and "ultralight" cigarettes in the 1960s and 1970s, the implicit message (pdf) in their advertising was that these products were safer and healthier than regular-strength cigarettes. People believed it, and the same belief persists today, as many many smokers still mistakenly believe that "light" and "low tar" cigarettes are safer and cause fewer health problems than full-flavor cigarettes. While tobacco companies will no longer be able to describe their products using misleading words, they aren't too worried. Instead, over the last year or so, they have simply changed the colors of the packs to convey the same message, eventually training people to recognize "light" and "low tar" cigarettes by color instead of words on the pack. All Salem cigarette packages, for example, used to be the same shade of green, but now Salem "lights" are a lighter-colored green and white, and "ultralight" cigarette packs will be pale gray and white. R.J. Reynolds argues that the "smoking experience" is the cigarettes' appeal, not safety, and that different-colored packages will ensure that smokers can still get the taste they desire from cigarettes. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) thinks differently, saying the industry has just found a way to evade the law and continue misleading consumers.

Comments

people will ALWAYS turn to chemistry. i don't think people are ready to deal with the fallout from black market cigarettes.

Everyone knows smoking is bad, gambling is bad, but it's still a freedom of choice. Just like I like trade forex, but the government wants to squeeze out all the small individual traders but tightening the laws. Too much control.

But I do agree, that at some point the goverment needs to step in and write the rules for most people, since not everyone is as educated and smart about things that happens around them.

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