Corpses and rotten teeth? Feds propose graphic cigarette labels

[The Straight Story]

RICHMOND, Va. — The federal government hopes new larger, graphic warning labels for cigarettes that include images of corpses, cancer patients, and diseased lungs and teeth will help snuff out tobacco use.

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

The number of Americans who smoke has fallen dramatically over the past 40 years, but those declines have stalled in recently. About 46 million adults in the U.S., or 20.6 percent, smoke cigarettes, along with 19.5 percent of high school students.

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."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40108276/from/toolbar

**** Can we have the same printed on our MONEY? Since it is going to kill people with wars, etc.

Dumbasses.

[YOY]

1. I'd like recruiting posters to display flag draped coffins, PTSD sessions, and civilian casualties.

n/t

[JackRiddler]

38. There was that one where the Marine climbs a mountain and turns into a ghost...

but I don't think most people saw it that way. ;)

[Withywindle]

41. +10,000!

[wuushew]

2. You poor angry libertarian addict

everyday a fresh outrage that civilazation burdens you with.

unrec

[The Straight Story]

5. Call me a libertarian to avoid the issue and the principles

Nice. At least I stand on my principles, you just dance around things and pick and choose using your own bias.

Don't like something, you don't care. Do you think abortions should be illegal or people having them should be shown fetuses in a jar? No? Why not? Maybe because for SOME things you stand on a principle and then abandon it first chance you get when it is something you don't like or is not politically expedient.

[beevul]

33. Thats...

Thats gonna leave a mark...


Well said, TSS.

[krabigirl]

27. Wow....

[riverbendviewgal]

3. We have this on Canadian cigarettes

There is no advertising for cigarettes or tobacco products....Also they can't be sold in pharmacies and must be in a cabinet where the cigarettes can't be seen. I think it is very effective....Many have quit. The price of cigarettes is also high...Last time I heard it is around 10 bucks a pack.

[pipi_k]

7. I don't know how people can afford them

They're around $10 a pack in my area too.

Even if someone only smokes one pack a day, geez, that's almost $400 a month. A new car payment. Part of a mortgage payment. Food. Heating oil or whatever.

Or something cool, like a vacation.


Mr P had a program on his computer that figured out approximately how much money we have saved by quitting 14 years ago. For both of us, total, it's more than $60,000.

We've also gotten some pretty neat things with all that money.... :)

[pipi_k]

4. I don't know if it would work for everyone, to be honest...

But I will say one thing...it didn't take a picture of rotting body parts to make me quit smoking the first time. I just one day got a mental picture of my lungs turning black. That was it. I stopped smoking immediately, and stayed smoke free for nearly five years. That was in the mid 80s. Stress caused me to start up again, but then I quit again in 1996 and have been smoke free ever since.

The reason for that was a little more personal...a promise made.

Some people might only need a little push...others might not even be affected by graphic images.

And some keep right on smoking even though they've got COPD and are hooked up to oxygen.

I don't know what the answer is, or if there is one....

[laughingliberal]

24. Well, the real answer is the one we'll never get with our profit driven health care system.

The percentage of smokers who are the hard core, can't quit no matter what, addicts need addiction treatment just as other addicts do. All the aspects of the addiction need to be addressed including effective treatment for the symptoms the smoking has been keeping under control. It'll never happen. Hell, insurance won't even cover nicotine replacement product let alone treatment.

We'll just keep demonizing smokers and feeling smugly superior.

[LiberalAndProud]

6. I predict an uptick in sales of pretty cigarette cases.

dumb.

[laughingliberal]

25. Yep. nt

[Dr Morbius]

8. I don't want to be misinterpreted here, but I have to say this:

Really, Mr. President? There are so many things left undone as of yet, and I've given you a pass because there are so many things to do and you need time to get them done. But this is what you've got your people working on, a way to graphically tell people something everyone already knows?

Isn't there something more, oh, I don't know, more IMPORTANT these people could be doing? Like, for example, changing the culture of the pharmaceutical industry so they don't try to keep people on pills all the time.

Everyone who smokes (I am one) knows it's bad for them. Putting horrible pictures on the cigarettes isn't going to "bring it home." It's addiction, and reason doesn't enter into it where addiction is concerned. Wasting time and effort: our current President.

I haven't forgotten the promise to fix FISA, by the way.

[The Straight Story]

15. Shhhh you don't want to ruin the nanny staters' dreams

To them there is only one really important issue - telling others that 'your body, your choice' is bad and wrong.

The whole idea of adults being able to make their own choices without a governmental body interfering is odd. They are kind of like the RW'ers when it comes to abortion, sex education, etc - there is someone else who knows better than you and if you don't follow their religion...err idealism...you are a sinner who needs others to punish you for not making the choices they made.

That whole principle of freedom and choice? Well that is only worthwhile sometimes, at other times it means jack. And if you stand on that progressive principle you are called a 'libertarian'. Not sure why, but believing in choice and freedom is no longer considered something progressive.

Control others and their choices and you are seen as a progressive - because us little folks need others in power to tell us how to live (mainly because you and me and others are too stupid to make our own choices).

[Jamastiene]

40. I wonder how many jobs it will create?

How many new jobs could this possibly create? A single graphic artist to print the approved medical pictures (that probably already exist)? What? It's not like they need to hire new workers to change the design on the packs. In reality, no new jobs will be created by this bullshit.

People want jobs and they give us this. What a waste of resources and effort. :eyes:

[elocs]

9. An interesting counter-argument: "Scare tactics don't work"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/opinion/12iht-edlinstrom.1.18632161.html?_r=1

A brain-imaging experiment I conducted in 2006 explains why antismoking scare tactics have been so futile. I examined people's brain activity as they reacted to cigarette warning labels by using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a scanning technique that can show how much oxygen and glucose a particular area of the brain uses while it works, allowing us to observe which specific regions are active at any given time.

We tested 32 people (from Britain, China, Germany, Japan and the United States), some of whom were social smokers and some of whom were two-pack-a-day addicts. Most of these subjects reported that cigarette warning labels reduced their craving for a cigarette, but their brains told us a different story.

Each subject lay in the scanner for about an hour while we projected on a small screen a series of cigarette package labels from various countries - including statements like "smoking kills" and "smoking causes fatal lung cancers." We found that the warnings prompted no blood flow to the amygdala, the part of the brain that registers alarm, or to the part of the cortex that would be involved in any effort to register disapproval.

To the contrary, the warning labels backfired: They stimulated the nucleus accumbens, sometimes called the "craving spot," which lights up on f.M.R.I. whenever a person craves something, whether it's alcohol, drugs, tobacco or gambling.

Complex problems rarely have simple answers. People can ignore scare tactics that relate to their behaviors or habits because they believe the negative consequences will happen to somebody else, not them. This is especially true of young people because they believe they are immortal.

[NNN0LHI]

45. I recall s study from the 60's that showed the those same results

We never learn do we?

Don

[seabeyond]

46. when a person hears dont smoke the brain hears..... SMOKE.

doesnt hear the DON'T part

[LoZoccolo]

10. Good idea! n/t

[Kadie]

11. pics...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gestures during a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010, to release proposed warning graphics that will appear on cigarette packaging.« Read less (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)


Three examples of proposed warning graphics that will appear on cigarette packaging as part of the government's new tobacco prevention efforts, seen in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010.« Read less (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

[anAustralianobserver]

37. Holy crap - the political and psychological naivete of putting giant Big Brother images of gory

bits and "I cause disease" next to your face when you're the Sec. of Health lol sigh.

[truebrit71]

12. Whatever it takes to get people to stop and/or never start...

..as a former long-time smoker who has quit as many times as he has had hot meals, i can tell you that i wish more had been done to make smoking seem less "cool" than it was...as it is, here I sit four smoke-free months later (after smoking for over half of my life) wondering why in the world no-one cock-punched me everytime i lit up..I mean, really, do you know how bad that shit smells?

[TroglodyteScholar]

21. Congrats on quitting

Also a former smoker here, going on about 1.5 years excluding about 3 weeks when I relapsed.

And yes, I totally know how bad that shit smells. Ugh!

[truebrit71]

47. Thanks...it's still tough once in a while..but the longer I stay off them the easier it is to work..

..through the rough patches..

[Kablooie]

13. Teens will think the pics are cool and start collecting them.

[WinkyDink]

14. Obama has some sickos working for him.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. GOOD! THey are NASTY

[The Straight Story]

17. And when bush/etc in power and they want to show aborted fetuses to women

who want abortions, and use that line "GOOD! They are Nasty" I am sure you will be happy to side with them.

You don't like something (like THEY don't) so you are just fine and dandy with them doing things like this?

Remember that when the pugs are in power and want to do the same things, you won't have any room at all to complain because they will use the same excuse you are using.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. That is what Operation Rescue does all the time

what the hell are you talking about?

Look you do not want ANY government, good, bad, ugly, we have established that.

[The Straight Story]

19. Nope - I do want govt , But not wholescale without any bounds

Speaking of operation rescue - are you in favor of their methods? How would you feel if their methods were not only sanctioned by the government but also paid for by them?

I stand on principle - I am against across the board. If you stand for it in this case, why would you not in other cases?

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. good to know

public health is in their purview.

and op rescue is free speech. as much as I disagree.

This is coming from intensified efforts world wide. There are a couple nations that are not playing. as a health worker i agree with this policy.

[REP]

22. Operation "Rescue" spreads lies; the science is pretty good on tobacco

I'm not sure if bad teeth have the same emotional whallop of a phony 'dead baby!!11' photo though.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. That is the ramped up efforts across the world

Indonesia is not playing, but they haven't from word go.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. Incredibly bad idea.

That would make them even more appealing to adolescents.

[pipi_k]

31. I don't know about making them more appealing, but...

I do know that many, if not most, adolescents think they're invulnerable...invincible...immortal.

And even if they don't, they'll still rationalize it all with the idea that whatever might happen would be years...decades...in the future. Maybe someday when there's a cure for cancer (they'll think).

Pretty scary. On the local news earlier a reporter was talking to some teens out on the street. One kid said that basically he would only stop if he "started coughing up blood or something". In quotes because that's exactly what he said.

And that was even after seeing the proposed images.

[krabigirl]

28. Creepy.

Anyway, regardless, this won't stop people from smoking. Sure wouldn't have stopped me back in the day.

What's next? Photos of overweight or obese people on big Mac wrappers? Or people with heart disease?

[HEyHEY]

29. We've had them in Canada for years. Who cares?

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. And I seem to remember them in Mexico

It is part of a ramped up effort world wide.

[quaker bill]

32. They mistakenly assume

that people who smoke do not know all this.

[Crunchy Frog]

34. In my job I've seen smokers living under the same roof with or visiting parents who

are in the process of dying of lung cancer. If that doesn't deter them, then yucky pictures sure won't.

[quaker bill]

44. You have found the bottom line

They should quit messing around, either ban them (and create a black market) or just do PSAs to make clear that using this product is not a great idea. People get it already.

[beevul]

35. Many are still not getting the picture.

You know, look at the last elections.

Look at the way people responded to the mandate contained within the "health care reform" bill, before the last election.

Now look at this quote from the Op:

"The images are part of a new push announced..."


Can't anyone understand that people at large, a rather sizable portion of them at least, don't like it when the .gov gets pushy?


This is just going to empower the anti-gov among the populace, the tea party, AND set a precedent for the next time the right has full control.


Those of you that support this nonsense, pat yourself on the back when that time comes.


Bookmarked for future reference.

[anAustralianobserver]

36. I agree - we have this in Australia. This is treating citizens like children and causes visceral

distrust in government imo. Big Brother vibe.

Smokers here are used to the images and ignore them and non-smokers like me turn people's cig packets around resentfully. Everyone gets distracted by gory images on billboards and buses when they're driving or just walking around in the city. (Mercifully they seem to have taken most of these down.)

I kind of use support for this as a test for authoritarianism. It might work to help some people to quit smoking but there must be better ways.

What image of itself does a nation want to have?

[Jamastiene]

39. In a society as violent as American society,

they might as well add a copy of Faces of Death with every pack of cigarettes...or apple or tube of toothpaste or on cereal boxes. Americans have been desensitized already. In our society, violence and gore is A-OK, but sex is taboo.

Smoked rotten lungs, nasty teeth and holes in people's mouths and throats sounds like any Bruce Willis/Stallone type movie, CSI episode, or many American streets on any given day.

:shrug:

I can already imagine some of the jokes that will be made about the packaging now. It will be just like the jokes most of us used to make about the "your brain on drugs" commercials..."Can I eat my brains now?" "Can I have ketchup on my brains?" "If that's my brain on drugs, there must be eggs and a frying pan in my head!"

What a waste of resources and effort.

[Withywindle]

42. Meh. They've had those in Canada for many years.

Don't know if it made a difference or not.

I suspect the biggest effect that will happen if this comes to law here is that those slim, elegant silver cigarette cases of the first half of the 20th century will make a comeback. I already have a couple, I'll be fine with it.



(Might also consider what Brazil has done for years: use a picture of a hot babe rejecting a dumpy guy, with copy underneath it that says that cigarettes cause bad breath and yellow teeth. Appealing to vanity and desire to get laid is most likely more effective, IMO.)

[Raine]

43. Anybody who really cares about the horrible effects of smoking

has probably already quit or never started in the first place.

[nc4bo]

48. That's all well and good but I say we need to go after alcohol too

I'm sure there are equally disturbing grossness associated with booze too, like the results from car accidents and on human body tissue.

This one way shit just pisses me off.

It's all or nothing.