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Cigarette labels to get morbid
The FDA will announce a new set of tougher mandatory warnings on cigarette packs — including nasty images covering 50 percent of the packaging.
Thu, Jun 02 2011 at 9:39 AM
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Photo: Livescience
Cigarette warning labels are getting serious these days. In just a generation or so, they have evolved from "smoking may cause lung cancer" to "the surgeon general hopes you drop dead tomorrow, you idiot."
While the latter admittedly is an exaggeration, it isn't too far off. In June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to announce a new set of even tougher mandatory warnings on cigarette packs with accompanying nasty images covering 50 percent of the packaging.
Will this be enough to convince the remaining 20 percent of the U.S. population who still smoke to kick the habit? According to several studies published this month, the answer is yes, or at least maybe, for some of these smokers.
Hasn't killed me yet
Smoking is harmful. If that's news to you, chances are you also don't know that chickens lay eggs and that water is wet. Hence the challenge health officials face in trying to convince smokers to quit: Everyone knows the message.
Smokers fall into three camps: the "so what if it kills me" crowd; those who prefer to maintain a comfortable level of ignorance about how harmful smoking is; and those who want to quit. The FDA is targeting the latter two groups, having all but given up on those vested in their individual liberty to die prematurely.
In June 2009, former smoker President Barack Obama signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the FDA authority to regulate the content, marketing and sale of tobacco products. A year-and-a-half later, the FDA announced tentative plans to get tougher on labeling. Half a year after this, the FDA is close to announcing the actual labels.
You can get a peek of some of the proposed warnings and imagery. The most radical change will be the requirement to cover half the front and rear of the cigarette packaging. Currently, the United States has among the least prominent warnings. (Smoking can lead to age-related macular degeneration; oh, the irony.)
Also, gone will be warnings that require a degree in chemistry to appreciate, such as, "Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide," to be replaced by the straightforward "Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease" and the like. [10 Easy Paths to Self Destruction]
The only problem is that the warnings aren't terribly powerful, and the images of death and disease are potentially comical.
Proposed image as it would appear on a cigarette package. (Photo: FDA)
Warning on warnings
Canada has one of the lowest smoking rates among industrialized countries, at 18 percent and falling; and the country has long used graphic imagery on cigarette packs coupled with potent remarks, such as "Smoking can make you impotent."
Russia also has tough language, yet 70 percent of the men smoke. The warning might as well be, "Let me light it for you."
Mandatory warnings aside, cigarette manufacturers still have found ways to lure new customers. Starting in June 2010, the FDA began to limit use of terms such as "light," "mild," and "low" on packaging. Tobacco companies rebounded by using new terms such as "gold," "silver," and "white," according to three studies about manipulative practices that are published in the June 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
For example, smokers overwhelmingly chose the "whitest" pack if they were concerned about health, tar and nicotine, according to one study led by Maansi Bansal-Travers of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. Another study by much of the same group found that smokers were more likely to think about health risks when confronted with packs containing unavoidable graphic images of disease.
Possible new bans
The 2009 Tobacco Control Act is not without its critics. The act enabled the FDA to ban most flavored cigarettes except menthol, which accounts for 30 percent of the cigarette market and is particularly popular with younger smokers and African-Americans, according to a May 4 perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The authors stated that they have convincing evidence that the availability of menthol cigarettes increases the number of smokers by increasing the rate of smoking initiation and reducing the rate of cessation. As a result of this and similar studies, the FDA is considering a ban on menthol.
Sometimes you just got to feel sorry for the tobacco industry, faced with one extreme ban after another on advertising, marketing, selling and all. But then you remember, "Oh, yeah, right, these are the guys who have essentially lied for the past 50 years and indirectly killed my uncle."
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Tobacco is covered. Now we just need-
-pictures of car wrecks & abused spouses on labels for liquor
-pictures of bullet-ridden bodies of women/children on labels for guns/ammo
Sarcasm...perhaps. However , it's really not much of a stretch when you consider
If cigarettes are so inherently evil, just ban them. It worked so well with alcohol. It works so well with marijuana.
take that to the bank
Do you have any idea what the taxes are on a pack of cigarettes? The taxes are as high as 300% in some states. That doesn't even touch the billions extorted from tobacco companies by the government. You really need to hop off that high horse and get a clue. Smokers cover their own costs and then some. It's pathetic to watch the government demonize an industry even as it uses it to fill its coffers. You think smoking is so bad, then grow a pair and make it illegal.
Smoking or not it's a personal decision. However most of the society pays for the cost smokers impose in society. I suggest that anyone that wants to smoke should be recorded in a central Data base and receive a number. This number will allow him to buy cigarettes, but being in that DB will make their health plan more expensive, and life insurance too, even house insurance may be more expensive. So the cost of smoking will be paid only by smokers.
Look, we're all going to die eventually. If I choose to do it to myself, I should be allowed to without people calling me an idiot or questioning my sanity. How many people kill themselves with alcohol or over eating. Everything is bad for you and chances are you will eventually die.
Smoking is the only one that is also harmful to everyone around you (and FYI, anything -food, drink or cleaning product - that comprises that much poison has appropriate warning labels too).
In an enclosed airspace, Bleach or Ammonia will kill a person in hours, not the 20 years second-hand smoke will take to kill you !!
Pour either of them on your hand directly, now hold a handful of tobacco in the other hand.....wait 1 hour.
Let us know how that turns out, would ya ?
Bleach or Ammonia - both are extremely harmful to anyone within breathing distance !
You obviously have the internet at your disposal, so find me JUST ONE warning for either of these products, that is even remotely equal to the current or proposed warnings.
Sure, everyone thinks that smokers are idiots, and I agree.. to a point.
Before we call them idiots, we need to remember that over 90% of smokers became addicted while they were teens or preteens, and incapable of making rational decisions. Once they become addicted, the decision to smoke or not becomes MUCH more difficult.
Really? I'm not a smoker but I think this is kind of ridiculous. People are idiots you can't hold their hands all the time. Though they would be less of a burden on the medical system. I'm surprised they haven't ever started putting warnings on bottles of booze. Seems to be a bigger and more immediate problem anyway.
I would love to see some graphics on my cigarette pack... It's to bland now.. Maybe i won't have to hide my pack in a case now, seeing as how their will maybe be dead bodies or insults. woot!
It says a lot about the world we live in when things like cigarettes and McDonald's are seen as 'okay' to exist but herbal medicines and the like are soon to be banned.
So, people can slowly kill themselves if they want to, but no one's allowed to live healthily if they want to?