[img]http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/20110817/52a7a1_cigs81711.jpg[/img]
[quote] COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tobacco companies want a judge to put a stop to new graphic cigarette labels that include the sewn-up corpse of a smoker and pictures of diseased lungs, saying they unfairly urge adults to shun their legal products and will cost millions to produce.
Four of the five largest U.S. tobacco companies sued the federal government Tuesday, saying the warnings violate their free speech rights.
"Never before in the United States have producers of a lawful product been required to use their own packaging and advertising to convey an emotionally-charged government message urging adult consumers to shun their products," the companies wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington.
The companies, led by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co., said the warnings no longer simply convey facts to allow people to make a decision on whether to smoke. They instead force them to put government anti-smoking advocacy more prominently on their packs than their own brands, the companies say. They want a judge to stop the labels.
The FDA refused to comment, saying the agency does not discuss pending litigation. But when she announced the new labels in June, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called them frank and honest warnings about the dangers of smoking.
The FDA approved nine new warnings to rotate on cigarette packs. They will be printed on the entire top half, front and back, of the packaging. The new warnings also must constitute 20 percent of any cigarette advertising. They also all include a number for a stop-smoking hotline.
One warning label is a picture of a corpse with its chest sewed up and the words: "Smoking can kill you." Another label has a picture of a healthy pair of lungs beside a yellow and black pair with a warning that smoking causes fatal lung disease.
The lawsuit said the images were manipulated to be especially emotional. The tobacco companies said the corpse photo is actually an actor with a fake scar, while the healthy lungs were sanitized to make the diseased organ look worse.
The companies also said the new labels will cost them millions of dollars for new equipment so they can frequently change from warning to warning and designers to make sure the labels meet federal requirements while maintaining some distinction among brands.
Joining R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard in the suit are Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Inc. Altria Group Inc., parent company of the nation’s largest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, is not a part of the lawsuit.
The free speech lawsuit is a different action than a suit by several of the same companies over the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The law, which took affect two years ago, cleared the way for the more graphic warning labels, but also allowed the FDA to limit nicotine. The law also banned tobacco companies from sponsoring athletic or social events and prevented them from giving away free samples or branded merchandise.
A federal judge upheld many parts of the law, but the companies are appealing.[/quote]
[url]http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/general/view/20110817tobacco_graphic_federal_warnings_arent_fair/srvc=news&position=also[/url]
It's been going on for years in Australia.
People still buy shitloads of cigarettes.
Well maybe you should've thought about that before you made an industry entirely around selling people addictive toxins.
Why don't coke bottles have pictures of heart attack victims and morbidly obese people?
Yeah, don't you love that one with the Kid on Life support?
[editline]17th August 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Stren;31782786]Well maybe you should've thought about that before you made an industry entirely around selling people addictive toxins.[/QUOTE] Although those people are adults, they have the legal right to put what they want into their bodies.
But people losing their lives and getting terrible diseases totally are
Selling a product more addictive than Heroin isn't fair either.
Ha its like that here whenever I smoke (I socially smoke) I always joke about those pictures I swear it only works onpeople under 16 most people don't give a fuck about graphic pictures. Its like those anti drink driving adds they just turn into jokes.
like everyone finds this hilarious now
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdRZhfWFPHE&feature=related[/media]
[QUOTE=The Aussie;31782811]Yeah, don't you love that one with the Kid on Life support?
[editline]17th August 2011[/editline]
Although those people are adults, they have the legal right to put what they want into their bodies.[/QUOTE]Warnings that it'll kill you do not legally bar them from buying them. The health of thousands is much more important than a few companies profit margins anyway.
We've had these in Canada for years.
[QUOTE=Theater;31782800]Why don't coke bottles have pictures of heart attack victims and morbidly obese people?[/QUOTE]
you can not turn fat by exercising a bit
you can't not fuck up your lungs when you smoke anything.
[QUOTE=Xeon06;31782935]We've had these in Canada for years.[/QUOTE]Same in the UK and I'm pretty sure Australia has them too.
In my opinion, let idiots smoke and drink till they drop. Oh yeah, Caffeine is one of the worlds most addictive substances. Are you a Coffee a day drinker? Two, Three? If you are 3 or more, go for one week without a coffee. Hard ain't it?
I'm personally for the legalization of all drugs, make Cigarettes illegal, do you really think that's going to stop people?
It's a shame how ass-backwards American politics get once money is involved.
Show people the facts, let them make their own decisions.
It's good they're bothering them, means the pictures and doing their jobs. If they bother the company, they probably bother at least [i]some[/i] of the users too...
*Cough**Cough* Pharmaceutical companies against pot legalization*Cough**cough*
[QUOTE=Angry Pineapple;31783024]It's good they're bothering them, means the pictures and doing their jobs. If they bother the company, they probably bother at least [i]some[/i] of the users too...[/QUOTE]
I've never met anyone who is bothered by shocking images on their ciggarettes
OH FUCK OFF
[editline]17th August 2011[/editline]
:(
Triple auto-merge break.
Must be some new record
[QUOTE=The Aussie;31783030]*Cough**Cough* Pharmaceutical companies against pot legalization*Cough**cough*[/QUOTE]
Dont start this man it'll turn into another 50 page debate :v:
[QUOTE=The Aussie;31783006]In my opinion, let idiots smoke and drink till they drop. Oh yeah, Caffeine is one of the worlds most addictive substances. Are you a Coffee a day drinker? Two, Three? If you are 3 or more, go for one week without a coffee. Hard ain't it?
I'm personally for the legalization of all drugs, make Cigarettes illegal, do you really think that's going to stop people?[/QUOTE]What, no one is making them illegal, they're putting warnings on the packaging that smoking tobacco considerably shortens your life, I'm all for legalisation of many drugs, but that's only every going to work with consumers making informed choices.
There is almost nobody who doesn't already know that smoking kills. Stop sitting on the fence guvna, either make it illegal or don't. Don't spend tax payers money forcing through a useless campaign. When you're at the corner shop craving a durry, I.D in one hand and 20 dollars in the other you don't give a fuck and a half about the health warnings. They aren't a deterrent at all.
I think our current education is fine. There is a difference between Educating and using scare tactics. *Cough*Marijuana*cough*
In Mexico the packs have dead rats, dead babies and clear signs that says "this will kill you", and my mother still has a fuck load of them in her car, it's almost as if she collects the graphic images...
Just outright banning cigarettes wouldn't stop people from smoking.
[QUOTE=Keeshond v2;31783089]There is almost nobody who doesn't already know that smoking kills. Stop sitting on the fence guvna, either make it illegal or don't. Don't spend tax payers money forcing through a useless campaign. When you're at the corner shop craving a durry, I.D in one hand and 20 dollars in the other you don't give a fuck and a half about the health warnings. They aren't a deterrent at all.[/QUOTE]This is more to stop people from getting addicted in the first place, since nicotine is extremely addictive.
[QUOTE=The Aussie;31783090]I think our current education is fine. There is a difference between Educating and using scare tactics. [b]*Cough*Marijuana*cough*[/b][/QUOTE]
Heeeyyyyyy Stop that :v:
[editline]17th August 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Stren;31783124]This is more to stop people from getting addicted in the first place, since nicotine is extremely addictive.[/QUOTE]
Still doesnt work, I can say this from first hand experience. Although I think the addictiveness is over played as in I can smoke a pack of cigarettes every weekend for a few weeks and then just not do them at all for the next few weeks.
It's probably why your so fucked up.......
Kidding.
Anyway, Kee's got a good point, Plain packaging, graphic health warning do nothing at all to deter a smoker who's craving a fag. The only real way would be to stop dumping fucking toxic chemicals into the Cigarettes, Fag's aren't as harmful when it's pure tobacco, But the shit they add in *Shiver*. If i every become a smoker, i swear I'm growing my own shit.
[editline]17th August 2011[/editline]
Never
[QUOTE=Stren;31783124]This is more to stop people from getting addicted in the first place, since nicotine is extremely addictive.[/QUOTE]
I know this, i am a smoker. They aren't a deterrent, not even for under-age smokers. Everyone already knows that smoking will likely bring you an incredibly painful and drawn out death. Still doesn't stop people from trying it.
(I started smoking after they put the gorey warning labels on in australia. So did most of my mates.)
I know i'm probably going to get box hail soon but i do regret it. It's just that quitting is extremely hard. Harder than you ever think it's going to be when you start out smoking in the first place. Try not eating for a week or two and minus hunger pains and a growling stomach it's a pretty similar feeling.
Regulating what they add to them would be even harder to do than this with all the lobbyists and cries of "BIG GOVERNMENT! SOCIALISM!" unfortunately.
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