FDA proposes graphic warnings for cigarette packs

From USA TODAY, today:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing that all cigarette packs and advertisements include highly graphic images like corpses and diseased lungs to underscore the negative health consequences of smoking.

"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 says in a news release. "The health consequences of smoking will be obvious every time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes."

The proposed graphics include a diseased lung, a graveyard, a corpse in a casket, discolored and disfigured teeth as well as such textual warnings as: Cigarettes Can Cause Fatal Lung Disease and Smoking Can Kill You.

The FDA is seeking public comment on the proposed graphics and warnings through Jan. 9. 2011.

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.