FDA releases new cigarette warnings

This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.
This image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011 shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the FDA's the new warning labels depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use.

By Landon Hall | Orange County Register

June 21, 2011 at 3:28 p.m.

And we have some winners! The FDA on Tuesday unveiled its nine choices for imagery that will go on packs of cigarettes by next year.

The best of the lot — or the grisliest, anyway — in the government’s competition turned out to be:

Guy with tracheotomy.
Mother swirling an impossibly large cloud of smoke around her innocent baby.
Rotting teeth.
Dead guy with stitched-up chest.
Healthy pink lungs, then smoke-charred ones.
Anguished woman, and then some text about second-hand smoke.
Premature baby in an incubator.
Bald guy with an “I quit” T-shirt. A rare hopeful message.
Fat guy with oxygen mask, apparently after having a stroke or heart attack.

Click on the image to see all nine images and accompanying warning labels.

And visit this post from last fall to see the artwork that didn’t make the cut. I think the FDA went soft, apparently. There’s not one image among the finalists of a body with toe tag, or a sickly woman in the hospital.

The new artwork — part of the biggest change to cigarette packaging since warning labels were first mandated in 1965 — will take up the top half of a cigarette pack, front and back. And each image will include the 1-800-QUIT-NOW help line. The graphic images also must appear in cigarette advertising and take up 20 percent of ads.

Manufacturers have until the fall of 2012 to comply.

The question is, will they have an effect? The adult smoking rate in the United States plummeted from about 40 percent in 1970 to 20 percent by 2004, but it has leveled off since then. California consistently has one of the lowest rates in the country, about 13 percent. But rates remain alarmingly high in many parts of the country, especially the South. Maybe the rates can only go so low.

Do you think the new images and warning labels will have an impact?