Posted on Sunday, 7th November 2010 by Brooke Richmond
The government is about to get graphic on cigarette warnings. They are bold and disturbing.
Dr. Margaret Hamburg with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) says the hope is that smokers will find them disturbing enough to quit.
“We need to be explicit we need to remind people about those negative and serious health consequences,” she said.
Thirty-six Images have been proposed which will be narrowed down to nine. By 2012, all cigarette packs will have those warnings displayed on 50 percent of the fronts and backs of the packages.
Critics, like Katherine Mangu-Ward, Senior Editor of Reason Magazine say it’s not the government’s role to make smokers quit.
“To force our stores to be full of images of corpses with stitches down their chests and cancer patients is needless pornography on the cigarette pack.”
Cigarette manufacturer RJ Reynolds issued the following statement: “We are challenging the legality of requiring larger and graphic warnings.” Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health insists that bold warnings are nothing new.
“You have countries around the world that have been doing this for the last decade,” he said.
With tobacco-related diseases still claiming about 1200 American lives per day, health officials think a little shock may be just what the doctor ordered.
The FDA expects to pick its final images by June and require them on all cigarette packs by September 2012. To see the images and comment on them, click here
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Tags: Get Graphic, Graphic
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