Here Are the Gross Images Coming to Your Pack of Cigs

Feds hope damaged teeth, lungs will deter smokers
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 21, 2011 9:29 AM CDT
New Cigarette Labels: Here Are the Graphic Pictures Coming to Your Pack of Cigarettes
This image provided by the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012.   (AP Photo/U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

The new cigarette package labels are out, and they’re not pretty. Federal health officials today released the nine warning labels that will cover the top half of all cigarette packages manufactured after September 2012, and they include graphic photographs of damaged teeth and lungs and an autopsied body as well as simple warnings like, “Smoking can kill you.” The new labels mark the first major change to cigarette warning labels in more than 25 years, the New York Times reports.

Of course, tobacco manufacturers are not happy about the new warnings, which will also appear on 20% of cigarette advertisements; all four leading tobacco companies are threatening legal action on the basis that their property and free speech rights are being unfairly damaged, in part because the images will obscure their brand names. The Department of Health and Human Services hopes the new labels, which are the result of recent landmark anti-smoking legislation allowing the FDA to regulate tobacco, will encourage smokers to quit and stop children from picking up the habit. Click for one columnist who doesn’t think this “gross” strategy works. (More anti-smoking stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X