CNN: More graphic cigarette warnings proposed

[snusjus]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/10...ss_igoogle_cnn

These graphics look strikingly similar to Europe's. Anyway, do you believe this will actually cut down on smoking rates in the USA? I've read conflicting studies, but I don't believe it will do much. Perhaps it will prevent younger people from starting? At least smokeless tobacco products only have text warnings.

[sgreger1]

These people will not stop untill every cigarette has a picture of a lung cancer infested lung printed on each one. And then eventually the day will come where it says "Per the surgeon general, smoking is no longer allowed"

[ratcheer]

These people will not stop untill every cigarette has a picture of a lung cancer infested lung printed on each one. And then eventually the day will come where it says "Per the surgeon general, smoking is no longer allowed"

That was what led me to stop smoking. It was a back cover picture on a Hustler magazine back in the early 70's. It showed a pair of black lungs from heavy smoking, but I do not think they were supposed to be cancerous, yet. The picture was paired with a picture of the pink, healthy lungs of a non-smoker. A little later, I read an article on some medical research that claimed that if you did not yet have cancer, simply quitting smoking would have your lungs 90% healed within six months.

I stopped smoking cold-turkey on New Year's Day, 1973. The two things I noted, above, were my strongest motivators. I had attempted and failed several times in 1972, but my '73 New Year's resolution stuck.

Tim

[Tobakssmak]

It showed a pair of black lungs from heavy smoking, but I do not think they were supposed to be cancerous, yet. The picture was paired with a picture of the pink, healthy lungs of a non-smoker.

Smoking doesn't turn your lungs black. Cancer does. All the pictures of black lungs you've seen are cancerous. In fact, a doctor can not tell if a previously healthy dead person was a smoker by looking at the lungs. The smoker's lungs are just as pink as a non-smoker.

[justintempler]

I don't need those warning labels but my brother does. He's got early stages of COPD . He Coughs, spits and hacks for atleast the first hour every day after he wakes up (while smoking his first 3 or 4 cigarettes of the day)

[texastorm]

I wonder why anyone would think a harsher warning is going to be more effective. While I applaud ratcheer for quitting back in 73, the reality is that the anti tobacco campaigns were just getting started and I can imagine if polled about the dangers of smoking a high percentage of people back then would have said smoking wasnt that bad. So a warning of this nature would have been effective.

However today, I think if you did a poll and it asked if smoking was really bad for you, I cant imagine anything less than a 95% yes response rate saying that it is bad. I imagine that at least 75% of everyone out there fully believes cigarettes are causing cancer too. Yet people do it anyway. So at this point bigger badder warning labels, banning flavors, and charging exorbitant "sin" taxes have lost there effectiveness and if people want further progress you have to take a new approach.

[NonServiam]

I'm even saving up the cans with the warning labels now! I'm sure someday they won't seem all that bad compared to a can that is covered in picutres of oral cancer. I should've saved my pre-warning label cans, but oh well.

[desirexe]

I really wish they would put pictures of morbidly obese people on donuts and snacks! That would make me stop eating crap! I personally think that they could sell tobacco in a 'black lung' shaped container and a huge majority would probably still not quit. I'd start up again just to collect the containers. I know, crazy thought..I had a couple glasses of wine at lunch! WOO HOO!!

[ratcheer]

Smoking doesn't turn your lungs black. Cancer does. All the pictures of black lungs you've seen are cancerous. In fact, a doctor can not tell if a previously healthy dead person was a smoker by looking at the lungs. The smoker's lungs are just as pink as a non-smoker.

Ok, now I know. But still, it motivated me to quit smoking and I am glad.

Tim

[Tobakssmak]

Ok, now I know. But still, it motivated me to quit smoking and I am glad.

Tim

I'm glad you did too. Smoking is a risky activity, I'm not saying it's good for you. Snus is much less risky. That's why I switched to snus over 6 months ago.

I'm just tired of all the BS put out by the fear mongering anti-tobacco zealots. Just give me the truth, and let me make my own decision.

[lxskllr]

I'm just tired of all the BS put out by the fear mongering anti-tobacco zealots. Just give me the truth, and let me make my own decision.

Yup. I'd be half inclined to smoke just to spite those asshats. You gotta die of something, and smoking works as well as anything else....

[snusgetter]

~
Comic Art, Scary Medical Photos Would Give Cigarette Labels an Edge

Cigarettes could come wrapped in comic book-style artwork and gruesome medical photos if the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed warning labels get adopted.

The proposed graphics — some of the coolest-looking government-sponsored art ever — can be seen here. Each was produced with a variety of type treatments, but this selection shows all the basic imagery, which would be slapped on cigarette cartons as in the FDA mockup above.

Each would come with one of nine proposed warning labels:
• WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive.
• WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children.
• WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease.
• WARNING: Cigarettes cause cancer.
• WARNING: Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease.
• WARNING: Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby.
• WARNING: Smoking can kill you.
• WARNING: Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers.
• WARNING: Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.

When would cigarette packs and advertisements get the new, possibly collectible look? The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act requires the FDA to issue final regulations requiring these color graphics by June 22, 2011, specifying that the requirement for the new health warnings must take effect 15 months after issuance of this final rule, according to the FDA website.


Check out some of the proposed graphics HERE.

[texastorm]

Wow when I was a teen I would have loved those awesome death graphics on my pack, it would have made smoking even cooler. Its the whole "I don't care" attitude that goes with teen smoking.

I think this is a setback for curbing teen smoking. This will definitely make smoking cool again. Hell when I was 15 I would have loved these images, and none of them even scare me a little. But I was a bad boy stoner type who listened to death metal before that was even cool, so maybe kids aren't doing that anymore, what do I know, I dont even have kids.

Nope big generic white labels definitely are better because they accomplish a couple things. They get the point across, and they make the pack look "generic" like the old black and white label generic stuff before eery grocery store starting branding their own generics.

At any rate I still stand behind my statements above. Warning labels are currently redundant, they may be of use again someday, but more warnings and bigger warnings and even cartoon warnings are likely to have 0 effect on making people quit at this point. Should we place warning labels on cars since you have a 1 in 83 chance of dying in a car crash in your lifetime source.

If one thing pisses me off about people in general is the fact we keep trying to cater to peoples stupidity. We have some of the stupidest warning labels on products you can imagine. Why on earth does a tool with a sharp blade thats designed to cut things need a label explaining it is sharp and will cut things? Why is someone even allowed to sue McDonalds because their coffee is served scalding hot, so now there is a dumbass label on the cup that says "hot".... someone make it stop.........................................

[f. bandersnatch]

They have got to understand that warning labels are not a solution to the problem, right? They have got to understand that some people are just going to smoke, and some will dip, and that even more will pop embolisms in their brains from spending so much time worrying about what those filthy smokers and dippers are doing.

The worrisome part of it is that there are full-grown, oxygen consuming, legislating adults out there who actually think that larger lettering means more education and that there are smokers who exist that think the habit is a healthy one.

[ChaoticGemini]

When I first heard this story today, I was thinking that a picture of black lungs on my snus is better than the labels it gets now. Then I thought about how it could be twisted into showing people that "this" is what you are preventing by using snus. Then the story continued saying that the pictures were going to be put on all tobacco products because some percent of people died from lung cancer. Okay, humor time over; that BS pisses me off. I don't see anyone advocating for pictures of obese people and clogged arteries on all the crap food I have to wade through at the grocery store to get to the size dwindling produce section. I also despise how ALL tobacco is to blame for everyone's health problems. St. Louis has ranked #1 for asthma sufferers for a number of years. Every time I have been in the Greater LA area is covered in a blanket of haze. My last trip to Chicago had me gagging on car exhaust. Point is, there is a lot of crap in the air that causes someone to get sick and the idea of blaming it all on smoking and then labeling all tobacco bad just makes me angry.

/soapbox