FDA fights to use gruesome images on cigarette packs to deter lighting up
The Food and Drug Administration is rolling out its latest plan to deter smokers from lighting up. Their hooe is showing in your face reminders of what could happen to your bodies if you do, will make people think twice before taking a puff.
The agency says they have unveiled 13 new warning labels it wants to put on cigarette cartons, each showing various graphic illustrations of the health effects often caused by tobacco use which the FDA says can include, blindness, fatal lung disease, amputated appendages and various cancers just to name a few.
Below are a few of the images the Federal Drug Administration is aiming to use. (Warning: some of the images may be disturbing)
The images are part of an FDA proposal to require new warnings with color graphics and new textual statements through a provision that originated from the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
While the law required new warning labels when it was initally passed, the tobacco industry blocked the rule in court, winning a 2011 lawsuit that claimed the images, which were even more graphic than the most recent versions, were mere scare tactics.
A federal judge ultimately ruled in their favor saying the pictures violated the First Amendment.
In a statement, the commissioner said the images were an effort to educate. Adding,
“surprising number of lesser-known risks that both youth and adult smokers and nonsmokers may simply not be aware of.”
That includes conditions such as impotence, diabetes, clogged arteries and cataracts. Sharpless adds,
“With these new proposed cigarette health warnings, we have an enormous public health opportunity to fulfill our statutory mandate and increase the public’s understanding of the full scope of serious negative health consequences of cigarette smoking.”
It still isn’t yet clear whether the FDA proposal will face another legal battle, though the agency may see challenges during its 60-day window within which will allow public comments to be taken into consdieration.
Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest tobacco company, told HuffPost in a statement that it plans to examine the proposal, but says,
“Our approach to the proposed rule will be constructive,”…adding, “We will carefully review the proposed rule and its implications to our businesses and submit comments.”
We firmly support public being aware of the harms of smoking cigarettes, but the manner in which those messages are delivered to the public cannot run afoul of the First Amendment protections that apply to all speakers, including cigarette manufacturers,”
Hollon added that the FDA should “focus on providing information that can produce health benefits for the public, not merely reiterating well-known messages that smoking is dangerous, which the public already understands.”
If finalized, the warnings would be branded across the top halves of cigarette cartons on both the fronts and backs, and would occupy at least one-fifth of the space at the top of advertisements, and could, if passed, show on Cigarette packs as early as the year 2021.
