Federal health officials have
unveiled plans to require cigarette packs and ads to carry dramatically bigger,
much more graphic health warnings, including for the first time images that
might depict dead bodies, cancer patients and diseased lungs.
The new warnings, which will mark
the first replacement of warnings that cigarette packs began carrying 25 years
ago, will cover half the front and back of each pack and 20 per cent of the top
of each ad.
Although smoking rates have dropped
in the United States, about 20 per cent of adults and high school students’
smoke, and tobacco remains the leading cause of premature and preventable death
in the country, causing 443,000 deaths each year and one-third of all cancer
deaths. An estimated 4,000 youths try a cigarette for the first time each day,
and 1,000 become regular smokers.
The proposed warnings include one
containing an image of man smoking with a hole in his throat from a
tracheotomy; another depicts a body with a large scar running down the chest,
and another shows a man who appears to be suffering a heart attack. Others have
images of diseased lungs and stained teeth and mothers blowing smoke into a
baby’s face.
The Food and Drug Administration,
which is requiring the warnings using new powers obtained last year from
Congress to regulate tobacco products, will gather public comment on 36
proposed images until 9 January.
The agency will select nine final warning statements
and images by 22 June after reviewing the scientific literature, the public
comments and a study involving 18,000 people.
By 22 October 2012, manufacturers
will no longer be able to distribute cigarettes for sale in the United States
that do not display the new warnings, which will be updated as needed.
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