US unveils graphic cigarette warnings

Jun 21, 2011, 20:54 GMT

Washington - Tobacco companies will be required to display one of nine approved color warning graphics on all cigarette packages and advertisements, US health officials said Tuesday.

The new warning labels will feature images of rotten teeth, lesions on a user's lip, diseased lungs and even a dead body.

'You know, somebody said, when they first saw the warnings, 'These are really gross.' And they are. We want kids to understand smoking is gross, not cool,' US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said.

The requirement will be effective in September 2012 under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The act, signed by President Barack Obama June 2009, originally instructed tobacco companies to disclose the ingredients in their products and stop using misleading terms like 'light' and 'ultra-light' on packaging. It did not specify a size or location for the information.

The warning must now occupy the top 50 per cent of cigarette packaging, front and back, and the upper 20 per cent of all advertisements.

Accompanying each graphic is a textual warning that goes along with the specific image, as well as the 1-800-QUIT telephone hotline.

The nine images were selected from a group of 36 possibilities based on their ability to convey tobacco's health risks to the public, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. The selection was the result of more than 1,700 public comments and an 18,000 person study by the FDA.

The graphics are the first major change in cigarette warnings in over 25 years. Packages currently contain a written warning of potential health consequences.