HHS RELEASE: FDA unveils final cigarette warning labels
For Immediate Release: June 21,
2011
Media Inquiries: Jeff Ventura, 301-796-2807,
[email protected]
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA
FDA unveils final cigarette
warning labels
New labels will help prevent
children from smoking and help adults quit
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today unveiled the
nine graphic health warnings required to appear on every pack of
cigarettes sold in the United States and in every cigarette
advertisement. This bold measure will help prevent children from
smoking, encourage adults who do to quit, and ensure
every American understands the dangers of
smoking.
The warnings represent the most significant changes to
cigarette labels in more than 25 years and will affect everything
from packaging to advertisements and are required to be placed on
all cigarette packs, cartons and ads no later than September
2012.
“President Obama is committed to protecting our
nation’s children and the American people from the dangers of
tobacco use. These labels are frank, honest and powerful depictions
of the health risks of smoking and they will help encourage smokers
to quit, and prevent children from smoking,” said Health and
Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “President
Obama wants to make tobacco-related death and disease part of the
nation’s past, and not our future.”
Tobacco use is the leading cause of premature and preventable
death in the United States, responsible for 443,000 deaths each
year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
and costs our economy nearly $200 billion every year in medical
costs and lost productivity.
These warnings, which were proposed in November 2010, were
required under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control
Act which was passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress and
signed into law by president Obama on June 22, 2009.
The FDA selected nine images from the originally proposed 36
after reviewing the relevant scientific literature, analyzing the
results from an 18,000 person study and considering more than 1,700
comments from a variety of groups, including the tobacco industry,
retailers, health professionals, public health and other advocacy
groups, academics, state and local public health agencies, medical
organizations and individual consumers.
Each warning is accompanied by a smoking cessation phone
number, 1-800-QUIT-NOW, which will allow it to be seen at the time
it is most relevant to smokers, increasing the likelihood that
smokers who want to quit will be successful.
When implemented in September 2012, all cigarettes
manufactured for sale or distribution in the United States will
need to include the new graphic health warnings on their packages.
The introduction of these warnings is expected to have a
significant public health impact by decreasing the number of
smokers, resulting in lives saved, increased life expectancy, and
improved health status.
“The Tobacco Control Act requires FDA to provide current
and potential smokers with clear and truthful information about the
risks of smoking – these warnings do that,” said
Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D.
The FDA action is part of a broad Obama Administration
strategy previously announced by HHS Assistant Secretary for Health
Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H. “Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: A
Tobacco Control Strategic Action Plan” outlines specific,
evidence-based actions that will help create a society free of
tobacco-related death and disease.
For more information on graphic warning labels and
hi-resolution images visit www.fda.gov/cigarettewarnings
###
SOURCE