Cigarette Packs to Show Corpses, Cancer Patients (PICTURES)

Can cigarette smokers be shocked into quitting? (FDA)

(CBS/AP) Can the federal government scare cigarette smokers into stopping with a new campaign of horrific images to be placed on cigarette packages?

They're certainly going to try.

Images of corpses, cancer patients, and diseased lungs are just some of whats in store in graphic new warning labels.

The images are part of a new visual campaign announced by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday to reduce tobacco use, the Associated Press reports, which is responsible for about 443,000 deaths per year.

The new prevention plan is part of the law passed in June 2009 giving the FDA authority to regulate tobacco, including marketing and labeling guidelines, banning certain products and limiting nicotine. The law doesn't let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco entirely.

"Today, FDA takes a crucial step toward reducing the tremendous toll of illness and death caused by tobacco use by proposing to dramatically change how cigarette packages and advertising look in this country," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a news release. "The health consequences of smoking will be obvious every time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes."

The FDA is proposing 36 labels for public comment, which include phrases like "smoking can kill you" and "cigarettes cause cancer," but also feature graphic images to convey the dangers of tobacco use.

The agency will select the final labels in June after reviews of scientific literature, public comments, and results from an 18,000-person study. Cigarette makers will then have 15 months to start using the new labels.

Canada was the first country to begin using visual warning labels, introducing them in 2000. Now, more than 30 countries employ visual warning labels, including Australia, Brazil, India and Egypt. Some countries' labels are particularly graphic, like Brazil's, which include dead premature fetuses, post-autopsy cadavers, and gangrenous feet.

While it is impossible to say how many people quit because of the labels that have been introduced, Hammond said every source of evidence suggests that the labels do help people quit.

Given the population in the U.S., the impact of the warning labels could be "significant," Hammond said.

Meanwhile, Reynolds American Inc., parent company of the nation's second-largest cigarette maker, R.J. Reynolds, is reviewing the labeling plan. But spokesman David Howard said the legality of the new labels is part of the lawsuit filed by the company, Lorillard Inc. and others pending in federal appeals court.

The tobacco makers in the suit had argued the warnings would relegate the companies' brands to the bottom half of the cigarette packaging, making it "difficult, if not impossible, to see."

33 Photos

33 New Terrifying Tobacco Warning Labels

[doughpro]

Just like the graphic videos they used to show in driver's ed didn't do much to deter kids from driving drunk, nor will graphic images on a cigarette pack prevent them from smoking.
What a ridiculous idea. The gov't should be thanking the cigarette co's and smokers for the billions of dollars of tax revenue they provide each year.
Who do you think will have to make up for that lost revenue if everybody quit? Yes, whiny non-smokers who are so offended by smokers, it will be YOU.

[JMitchell74]

If this is the case, then all vehicles should boldly display images of mangled bodies from car wrecks, all US Military commercials and literature should contain images of people being blown up and shot or tortured, the point is that if you nit-pick one thing that is harmful to peoples health, there should be similar actions taken for EVERYTHING that can potentially cause death or illness of EVERY kind.

[jhevans123]

This doesn't bother me because I open the pack and stick it in my cigarette case anyway. Ha Ha!

[antoniof123]

South America has already started this they just said enough.

I like it maybe so people will quit.

I used to smoke and quit 3 times before I was able to kick the habbit and it still from times to times smells good.

If you smoke good luck quitting it is a nightmare the cigarette companies know how hard it is to quit they don't want anything stopping them from killing you.

So don't anyone of you try to tell us it is easy to quit smoking it is next to impossible nicotine is more addive then heroin.

[marauder2]

I have never smoked but I know that it must be absolute torture to quit. The organization "Synanon" that helped people quit heroin also had a policy of no smoking in their clinic. People could quit heroin but had to leave the facility because they couldn't quit cigarettes. I applaud anyone who can quit. It takes strength that few have.
I believe the graphic pictures will help with pre-teens who are wanting to look cool and grown-up by smoking. Isn't that why all of you smokers started? To fit in and be cool? Well, it's not cool now is it? I think they should continue to raise taxes on cigarettes to an absolutely rediculous level like $12 a pack. Smokers won't quit. Their addicts. And with that massive tax revenue we can bail out Obamanomics and even he, a smoker, can look good!

[aelfheld]

Quitting smoking is easy - it's staying quit that's hard.

As for nicotine being 'more addictive than heroin', that's a 'factoid' invented by the anti-smoking crowd - there is no way to measure the potential for addiction of any substance. That more people smoke than use heroin (excepting some areas) has to do with (a) the legality of the vice and (b) the fact that nicotine does not impair one's acuity.

As for the effectiveness of the graphics, some people will be attracted because of the grotesquerie, most will ignore them.

[element51]

I would never argue that smoking is good for you. That is a given fact. But there are many other things that are just as bad. I am a smoker. For that I feel I must apologize. It has reached the point where there is such a stigma attached to those of us who smoke that we feel that we must be apologetic. I must say that at no time have I ever smoked a cigarette and then beaten my wife half to death. Nor have I ever smoked a cigarette and gotten into my car and wiped out an entire family because I was driving on the wrong side of the road. If things continue there will come a day when it will be acceptable to shoot someone dead if they are smoking a cigarette. One final point...everyone makes such a big deal out of social security going under so why not let people smoke? If smoking is killing over 400 thousand people a year just think how much it's going to cost if we keep them alive. And don't forget about the tax revenue that comes from smokers. How are you going to replace that? And tobacco taxes are one of the most regressive taxes we have. So bring on the pictures...big deal!

[Multi-Basking]

Anyone want to make a cool couple million fast? Develop and market cigarette pack sleeves with pictures of dead FDA agents and their rotting livers due to alcohol abuse.

I know I would buy one...

[talibanpeacemaker]

this is so idiotic...the govt does not care about the health of people, otherwise, why would they continue to tax cigarettes for the sole purpose of raising revenue? So long as the govt (federal on down) uses cigarettes as a revenue source (they don't even use the money for cessation programs or treatment programs), the more the govt is just enabling folks to smoke.

so, why don't we put graphic warning labels on alcohol since that kills lots of folks. why don't we put graphic warning labels on cars, since car accidents cause death, too. we might as well put graphic warning labels on anything with sugar or fat, too, since heart disease is the number one killer? we should make parents wear graphic warning labels since there are many bad parents out there who let their kids eat junk food all the time, or simply are terrible parents, which leads to kids doing stupid things like smoking, drinking, sexting, bullying, etc. we should make the president wear a graphic warning label, too, since he deploys military troops and there are many troops getting killed, so obviously it is bad for their health.

[oldbasicgal]

And yet the government STILL pays and pays and pays for smoker's health problems in the form of Medicaid.....

[retiredgustav]

Don't worry the teabaggers health plan will take care of this. Anyone without insurance will not be treated. If you are going to die, die quickly

[aelfheld]

It has been proven in many studies that the government benefits fiscally from smoking. Smokers die earlier thereby lessening their demands on Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security & they pay much higher taxes over the years.

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please." -- Mark Twain

[Multi-Basking]

Please don't put graphic, detailed pictures on Tampex products that have killed women from anaphylactic shock...

[NinthSt78]

More scare tactics from chicken little. If it gave them indigestion, I guess they would like to include a picture of the puddle of something else that resulted. As for the rest of us, the doom and gloom bunch can go spread their sour grapes somewhere else after lowering the taxes they so lovingly bestowed on the scapegoats.