U.S. Federal Issues

U.S. Unveils Bold New Cigarette Warnings

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Industry fights change to protect profits

Large, graphic cigarette pack warnings are required by the landmark 2009 law that gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. 

Under the bipartisan law, the new warnings must cover half the front and back of cigarette packs and 20 percent of advertisements.

In June 2011, the FDA unveiled nine final warnings, which under the law are supposed to be placed on all cigarette packs and ads in the United States starting in September 2012.

The evidence that warning labels work is solid and extensive. Studies around the world have repeatedly shown that large, pictorial warnings are most effective at informing consumers about the health risks of smoking, discouraging children and other nonsmokers from starting to smoke, and motivating smokers to quit. Because of this evidence, at least 43 other countries now require large, graphic cigarette warnings.

In contrast, current U.S. warnings, which haven't been changed in 27 years, have grown stale and ineffective.  The Institute of Medicine has called them "woefully deficient."

Despite the strong scientific evidence supporting the graphic warnings and the congressional mandate requiring them, tobacco companies have filed two lawsuits challenging them.  One federal judge has upheld them, saying that the warnings are consistent with the First Amendment and are "sufficiently tailored" to meet the government's substantial interest in effectively alerting the public to the dangers of smoking.  "The government's message is objective and has not been controversial for decades," U.S. District Court Judge Joseph H. McKinley wrote in a decision issued in January 2010.

Another judge, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, temporarily blocked the warning labels from going forward in a decision issued in November 2011. This ruling is wrong on the science and wrong on the law.

The Justice Department should immediately appeal this ruling so that the warning labels can take effect without delay.  Any delay will only serve the interests of the tobacco industry in selling more of its addictive and deadly products.

It is obvious why tobacco companies are seeking to block the new warnings.  They continue to spend billions of dollars to play down the health risks of smoking and glamorize tobacco use. These new warnings will tell the truth about how deadly and unglamorous cigarette smoking truly is.